Boom!
The massive main gun barrel at the bow of the warship hovering in the sky fired again.
The bright yellow shell landed in the city, erupting into a massive fireball.
"Where is he attacking?"
Li Chi beside him shouted anxiously.
Snapping back to reality, Zhou Tianming immediately grabbed his phone to check the map. After mentally simulating the shell's trajectory, his heart turned cold.
His small hand clutched the phone tightly as he spoke hoarsely: "The Black Tortoise..."
"There's still a chance!" Li Chi yelled, "There's still a chance! That main gun is at most 170mm caliber. The Black Tortoise can withstand it!"
Zhou Tianming remained silent.
The immobilized Black Tortoise was just a giant target now. What difference would surviving two or three shots make?
He looked up at the city still over ten miles away and sighed.
That was more than enough time for the warship to blast the Black Tortoise into scrap metal. There was nothing they could do.
Tears streamed down Li Chi's face as he choked out: "Why... if we'd just waited a little longer, just a little more..."
Suddenly, a man's furious roar echoed across the sky through loudspeakers:
"Gregg! Have you fucking lost your mind? Who authorized you to bring a warship inside the Satellite!"
In the distance, a round, bulbous spaceship rapidly approached.
The Ohmus gave no response, simply rotating its main gun and firing without hesitation.
Boom!
The shell streaked across the sky and struck the bulbous ship.
Kaboom!
The ship's bow exploded, its hull listing as thick smoke and flames billowed out.
The man's furious voice came from the damaged ship: "Gregg!!!"
Launch bays opened across the bulbous ship's hull, unleashing a dense swarm of missiles trailing fiery contrails.
The Ohmus' small twin-barreled autocannons roared to life, creating a dense curtain of flak that detonated most incoming missiles.
The thunderous explosions never ceased as metallic shrapnel rained from the sky.
Having chosen an open-top unmanned car to accommodate his spacesuit, Zhou Tianming now faced this deadly metal hail directly.
He urgently commanded the unmanned car to accelerate, but it refused to go beyond 80 kph.
[Warning: This road has a speed limit of 80 kph. Please remain patient and avoid reckless driving.]
"Tian Ming!"
Li Chi's voice suddenly rang in his ear just as a shadow fell from above.
Startled, Zhou Tianming looked up while rapidly operating his computer. The spacesuit instantly stood and punched away a large falling fragment, then leaned forward to shield him from above.
Countless metal fragments pinged against the spacesuit's armor, several piercing the jetpack on its back with ominous hissing leaks.
"Uncle Li... I'm sorry."
Zhou Tianming had instinctively protected only himself with the spacesuit, now realizing this with visible guilt.
"Well done!" Li Chi didn't seem to mind at all. "You're more important than me. What does my life matter if we can save you?"
Touched yet saddened by Li Chi's fate, Zhou Tianming found himself momentarily speechless.
A surge of anger built in Tianming's chest as he watched the sluggish unmanned car. Snatching up a hard object, he began violently smashing the vehicle's interior panel.
[Warning!—]
A tap on his phone.
[Dear passenger, if you're dissatisfied with the interior, please contact our company for immediate replacement.]
$5,000 transferred.
"Overdrive!"
[Hello, according to regulations—]
$10,000.
[Honored passenger, please fasten your seatbelt for safety.]
The unmanned car abruptly accelerated, pressing Tianming into his seat with tremendous force—200 mph.
While warships clashed overhead, the unmanned car kept increasing speed on the ground.
In under a minute, they reached the city now in chaos, with vehicles fleeing outward loaded with belongings.
Forced to slow against the traffic, the unmanned car eventually got stuck.
This won't do!
Tianming activated his spacesuit to lift them both, bending his knees before leaping as the jetpack propelled them three stories high.
The spacesuit arced toward a building's midsection, where Tianming kicked off a protrusion for another jump—just as the jetpack sputtered empty, halting their ascent.
Unfazed, Tianming spotted exposed pipes and crevices in the metal wall. His fingers flew across the computer.
The spacesuit's left hand precisely wedged into a gap while the right crushed a pipe for grip, stopping their fall.
In moments, they scaled to the rooftop, escaping the chaos below.
But the skies were no calmer.
Two more spaceships joined the distant battle, teaming with the rotund vessel to overwhelm Ohmus.
Seeing this, Tianming exhaled in relief.
No time left to target the Black Tortoise now.
Guiding the spacesuit, he bounded across rooftops toward the Black Tortoise's location.
Midway, the skies shifted again.
Several small ships entered from the spaceport, immediately firing upon the rotund vessel's group.
Ambushed from behind, all three ships sustained heavy damage, trailing black smoke as they plummeted toward the satellite's surface.
"Have you lost your minds?! Helping Gregg now—can't you see he'll destroy the Junk Guild's home?!"
A shrill, sleazy voice retorted: "The Junk Guild's planet means nothing to me. Gregg's payment already cleared. Want to make a counteroffer?"
"Bastards!"
As the situation deteriorated, Tianming moved faster.
Without opposition, the enemy might strike the Black Tortoise again.
Then Ohmus's missile ports opened, unleashing dozens of projectiles.
Tianming noticed the launch peripherally but dismissed it—until seconds later, when his expression changed.
The missiles were heading straight for the spacesuit.
Impossible!
Something this small shouldn't register on radar.
No time to ponder. Tianming leapt from the roof, sprinting as the spacesuit allowed.
The missiles struck moments later, explosions merging into continuous thunder.
The earth trembled as metal buildings shattered into fragments in an instant, the flames engulfing the crowded streets nearby in the blink of an eye.
Chaos, screams, wails...
...
On the Ohmus bridge, Gregg's face flushed with excitement as he waved his arms wildly: "Again! Keep firing! Blast those two into pieces!"
His fervor slightly subsiding, Gregg turned to praise a nearby crew member: "Good job tracking the enemy's location through the unmanned car's movement patterns."
"Only with your generous funding did their company cooperate so readily."
"Hahaha!"
A triumphant laugh.
...
The Ohmus swiftly advanced over the city, its missile launchers reloaded with a soft click as the new payload locked into position.
The next moment, missiles surged forth from the bays, trailing flames.
Just then, a whistling shriek pierced the air from below.
A rocket-propelled grenade soared up from beneath the warship, striking the missile bay with pinpoint accuracy.
BOOM!
The missile bay erupted in a massive explosion, detonating the freshly loaded missiles. Even those just launched were caught in the blast.
The Ohmus shuddered, tilting to one side.
Cheers erupted from the ground.
Simultaneously, elsewhere, a battered 12-slot missile launcher roared to life, unleashing a barrage of twelve rockets aimed at the warship's vulnerable underbelly.
Another location...
Yet another...
Across the city, the horns of counterattack sounded.
The Ohmus's reckless descent into the urban sprawl had exposed its blind spots, leaving only a few twin-barreled autocannons to defend its underside.
Meanwhile, clad in a spacesuit, Zhou Tianming emerged from underground near the ruins left by the missile strikes.