Chapter 59 — Exhausted Supplies

As the underground war of attrition entered its third day, the air within the Broken Horn mine shafts had become physically heavy and suffocating.

The ventilation system was completely paralyzed under the continuous laser bombardment of the heavenly battleships. The narrow tunnels were filled with the charred smell of sulfur, the stench of hydraulic oil, and the bloody odor of the wounded's infected and festering injuries. The mortal vanguard army's medical supplies had been completely exhausted on the first day; the wounded could only lie weakly on the cold volcanic rock slabs, letting out moans of pain amidst severe fever, awaiting the descent of death.

"Elias, this is our final inventory report."

In the gloomy command bunker, Lyra handed over a logbook stained with black oil and blood. Her face looked as pale as paper under the dim kerosene lamp light, her voice carrying an undisguisable hoarseness: "Our physical armor-piercing ammunition is down to the last three base units. Most fatally, the star-marrow slag used to create the insulating magnetic field for the Orbit-breaking Meteor Shells has been completely consumed. This means we have lost our only ultimate anti-air weapon."

Elias stood quietly before a dusty old star-map, his cheeks sunken from days without sleep, the cuffs of his khaki trench coat stained with dried divine blood. He didn't speak, just quietly listened as Lyra read out this merciless death sentence in a flat tone:

"The reservoir purifiers were shattered in the previous gravity bombardments; the remaining physical drinking water is only enough to sustain the entire army for twelve hours. Jonas's right leg wound is infected by heavy metal dust and sewage, putting him in a high-fever coma; if he isn't injected with antitoxin, he absolutely will not survive tonight. Also... our old batteries are severely leaking charge, the bunker's shield power is down to its last 15%."

"How is the situation with the 'Silver Ram's Horn' up in the sky?" Elias looked up, his lake-green eyes still profound and bottomless.

"They are physically recovering." Orion stepped out from the shadows. His scarred upper body was bare; on his broad back was a charred burn mark grazed by a laser. Although the red light at his divine core was somewhat dim, it still pulsated strongly in a rhythmic pattern. "That Divine Envoy named Phalan is extremely cunning. He gave up on close-quarters ground sweeps, instead hovering the flagship above the canyon cliffs, physically baking the Grand Canyon with continuous high-energy thermal radiation waves. The ground temperature is rising, and rocks are cracking. Their fire control computer is using an exhaustive algorithm to filter out that 0.01% causality clutter on me."

Orion raised his head, looking at the mine roof that constantly shook down dust overhead, his eyes cold: "In at most another twelve hours, the fire control polarization brought by that halo will be completely calculated and filtered out by their computers. When that time comes, the main cannon will lock onto me again, and incidentally erase everyone here without leaving even a molecule."

A deathly silence permeated the bunker.

"We can't just sit here and wait to die." Nova gritted her teeth, pointing at a massive, crude mechanical device beside the console. "Based on the causality interference model Uranus provided in my last dream, I built a physical prototype of the 'Anti-star Orbital Jammer'. If we can forcibly overload and start it, it can trigger a localized physical gravitational collapse above the Grand Canyon. This gravitational collapse can form a signal blind spot lasting three minutes, forcibly shielding all detection waves from the Aries flagship and even the heavenly Star-network. We can use the opportunity to start up those few old transport shuttles and break out."

"Overloading the jammer requires an extremely high instantaneous electrical energy; our current batteries can't start it at all." Caleb slammed the table with his remaining left hand, emitting a muffled physical crash. "We need a complete 'high-energy heavy hydrogen fuel cell core'. And up in the No. 2 logistical backup cargo hold above the Grand Canyon, there happens to be a civilian power unit sealed away, which contains an unused heavy hydrogen core."

"But the No. 2 cargo hold is currently within the firepower coverage of the flagship's secondary cannons!" Lyra exclaimed. "The Aries ground sentries have already established a temporary cordon there; going there to get the core is like snatching chestnuts from the fire right under the divine soldiers' noses!"

Elias slowly straightened up, his fingertips caressing the cold half-star-core pendant on his chest. The pendant warmed slightly in the faint gravity wind, as if transmitting some sort of warning from the abyss to him. He knew very well that the defensive line at the Grand Canyon pass had physically collapsed; continuing to hole up underground would only result in being roasted alive or carbonized by the main cannon. To survive, they had to activate the jammer; to activate the jammer, they had to get that high-energy heavy hydrogen core.

This was no longer holding the line, but a desperate race toward life through death.

"I will lead a team." Elias's voice was very light, but it carried a hardness like steel rails. He assigned Caleb to stay behind to tune the jammer, then quietly slipped out of the underground tunnels with Orion.

The outside world was pouring with a bone-chilling acid rain mixed with volcanic ash. Within the desolate and rugged canyon crevices, Elias and Orion moved rapidly under the cover of the rocks. Intense gravitational radiation waves drew dark red electric light across the atmosphere.

"Elias," Orion lowered his voice behind a giant rock, his chest faintly glowing with a painful red light in the night. "The gravitational pressure of the Saturn-Pluto opposition is like a rusty iron nail, constantly driving into my divine core. If I don't make it through this time... if one day in the future you get to see Astra, tell her that the most satisfying thing I did in my life was tearing off the life-saving light she wove on me and jumping off that arrogant observation tower."

Elias shot him a sideways glance, his lake-green eyes looking exceptionally cold in the rain: "If you want to say it, say it yourself. I am not your megaphone. In the laws of mortals, only those who survive have the right to talk about the future."

Orion was taken aback for a moment, then gave a low chuckle and gripped his broken knife tightly.

The No. 2 logistical backup cargo hold was already in a semi-collapsed state, the heavy steel skeleton emitting creaking sounds of physical friction in the cold rain. Three divine soldiers wearing Aries combat armor were patrolling vigilantly at the door of the cargo hold, holding plasma guns.

Elias gave a hand signal to Orion. The two erupted instantly like leopards in the night. Orion's massive body drew a violent physical wind; the heavy broken knife swept across, instantly tearing an ear-piercing shriek through the air, physically cleaving the foremost divine soldier—along with the firearm in his hand—in two.

At almost the same time, Elias slid close to the ground, his figure like an elusive afterimage. The heavy cutting knife brought up a cold silver line, precisely severing the leather connection piece at the neck of the second divine soldier's armor. Golden-red blood splattered, and that divine soldier fell painfully, clutching his throat.

"Under attack!——"

Just as the last divine soldier was about to shout a warning and pull the trigger, Elias turned back like a ghost. The handle of the knife in his hand smashed viciously into his temple, forcibly knocking him out physically.

"Nova, got the core!" Elias quickly used the cutting knife to sever the rusted physical latch on the distribution box. Together with Orion, they forcibly pulled the heavy high-energy heavy hydrogen core out from the power unit physically, the metal casing drawing an ear-piercing scrape across the mud.

At this moment, the distant Aries flagship had noticed the anomaly here. Several blinding searchlight beams instantly locked onto the half-collapsed cargo hold, and a dense volley of plasma secondary cannons swept over like a torrential rain, blasting the surrounding volcanic rocks into a sky full of splattering lava fragments. Elias and Orion, carrying the heavy core casing, ran madly under the cover of slanted shelves. Amidst the dense laser sweep, they leaped into a slanting underground ventilation shaft.

They tumbled all the way back to the temporary defensive bunker deep below.

"Catch! Caleb!" Orion roared, throwing the heavy high-energy fuel core heavily over.

Veteran Caleb used his remaining left hand and the stump of his broken mechanical arm to catch the casing together, slamming it violently into the power slot of the "Anti-star Orbital Jammer". Nova rapidly pulled down the high-energy copper wire connector. The entire mechanical jammer instantly emitted an extremely high-pitched, muffled physical hum. Countless barometers and voltage needles on the control panel jumped frantically.

"The jammer is physically charging! Electromagnetic gravitational collapse amplitude has reached 40%!" Nova wiped the machine oil and sweat from her face, shouting over the piercing hum. "But we still need three minutes for capacitor saturation! We don't have excess battery power to shorten this process!"

Elias stood beside the roaring jammer, looking at the rock debris constantly peeling off the ceiling of the red stone mine shaft under the flagship's polarization scan. His lake-green eyes held a resolve as cold as steel rails: "The Silver Ram's Horn's exhaustive fire control algorithms are almost done calculating that 0.01% of causality clutter. We cannot afford to wait three minutes. Nova, physically wire all the remaining battery units in the bunker in series and overload them! Forcibly push past the charging threshold; even if it destroys the generator, push it up for me right now!"