Chapter 155: The Power of the Thermobaric Bomb

Looking at the person flying in the sky, instructions from the Overmind were relayed directly into my mind.

That person is terrifying. They keep conjuring bombs larger than themselves out of thin air.

Yet, I feel no fear at all. As long as the Overmind is with me, I am fearless. Even if death should claim me in the next second, I would execute the Overmind's commands without the slightest hesitation.

I raised the compression rifle in my hands and fired compressed plasma toward the figure in the sky.

With every shot of compressed plasma, I could feel the energy within my body being absorbed by the rifle.

I wonder when the supply airdrop ship will release another energy cell. I yearn to feel energy flooding my entire body once again.

The person in the sky suddenly vanished once more. I am certain that I hit him, but it seemed he possessed an energy shield identical to the one our commander wore.

Only, a moment ago, the commander's entire head was blown apart by the enemy, after which he collapsed to the ground, turning into a puddle of useless interstitial fluid.

That person conjured a massive object—something two meters larger than him fell from the sky.

Just as it was about to descend, the object detonated, scattering everything contained within it across the area.

I felt a surge of joy; the thing he threw was broken, meaning I could stay with the Overmind for a little longer.

However, I suddenly sensed a ball of fiery red light blooming amidst the white mist before my eyes, and a wave of scorching heat washed over my entire body.

The thermobaric bomb was detonated, and a mushroom cloud surged into the skies. Within a radius of 1.6 kilometers, all Ceph units were swallowed by the immense blinding flames of the explosion.

Wang Jing had previously increased his flight altitude, yet he was still pulled downward by a fierce suction force. Fortunately, the ion thrusters on his armor were sufficiently powerful, preventing Wang Jing from being dragged down into the explosion's epicenter by the intense negative pressure.

The temperature and pressure sensors inside the armor sounded off with rapid, urgent alarms. The armor's control system, MOOS, also blared a warning: "Pressure imbalance! Emergency shutdown of the armor ventilation system initiated. External temperature rising drastically. Please evacuate the area immediately!"

Pushing his thrusters to maximum output, Wang Jing soared up to an altitude of three kilometers. By then, the aftermath at the center of the thermobaric bombing began to slowly dissipate, revealing the ground below as if it had been scorched by the sun.

Wisps of white smoke rose from the ground, quickly vanishing into the hellish, searing air.

Through the ultra-long-range zoom function of the armor's high-definition camera, Wang Jing saw the Ceph alien entities, scorched pitch-black by the inferno, reduced to nothing more than hollow shells.

Every single Ceph alien within the blast radius had been completely vaporized by the extreme high temperatures and vacuum generated by the thermobaric detonation, leaving not even a scrap behind, save for those charred exoskeletons.

The cleared area was swiftly occupied by the Dimensional Expeditionary Army. Although the temperature in that zone remained exceptionally high, it posed no problem under the protection of their exoskeleton armor.

Meanwhile, Wang Jing continued to rain bombs down upon the surrounding Ceph entities that were converging on the location.

Just as Wang Jing intended to deploy another GBU-43 thermobaric bomb to blast the clustered Ceph units below, dozens of Ceph gunships and transport vessels came roaring in from the distance.

Before Wang Jing could react, a cloud of white smoke billowed from the Dimensional Expeditionary Army's positions below, and dozens of anti-air missiles, trailing white exhaust flames, streaked rapidly toward the Ceph spacecraft in the sky.

The approaching Ceph gunships immediately unleashed fiery red compressed plasma in response to the incoming anti-air missiles.

In an instant, dozens of missiles were intercepted and exploded mid-air, yet a few missiles successfully breached the Ceph gunships' air-defense net, striking several transport vessels.

Even before crashing, the transport ships jettisoned all the drop pods attached beneath their bellies.

The drop pods that slammed into the ground deployed pure strains of heavy Ceph alien entities.

Protected by formidable armor plating, the Ceph gunships merely suffered hull damage after enduring a few anti-air missiles head-on.

They then unleashed a barrage of dense missiles and compressed plasma toward the Dimensional Expeditionary Army forces in the air and on the ground. Confronted with the incoming missiles, Wang Jing phased back to the prime dimension, leaving behind the GBU-43 colossal thermobaric bomb he had just released.

Deprived of its target, the incoming missiles instead locked onto the rapidly falling giant thermobaric bomb. Upon impact, the massive bomb ruptured violently, detonating its high-performance fuel before it could fully disperse.

The unburned fuel formed a massive column of black smoke that billowed into the skies.

Although the thermobaric payload's full potential was not unleashed, its sheer size and baseline explosive yield still destroyed a majority of the missiles fired by the Ceph gunships.

The surviving missiles punched through the dark smoke and continued plunging toward the Dimensional Expeditionary Army below.

Down on the ground, the Dimensional Expeditionary Army initiated their defense. The 12-barreled electromagnetic CIWS systems mounted on six anti-aircraft tracked vehicles unleashed a barrage of electromagnetic projectile shells within two seconds, weaving a solid wall of lead across the sky.

Every single missile was successfully intercepted, but the accompanying compressed plasma payload could not be stopped. Nearly all of it slammed into the Dimensional Expeditionary Army's lines, inflicting heavy casualties.

Returning to the fray, Wang Jing witnessed this carnage and immediately drove his mecha into an assault on the nearby Ceph gunships.

The 12-barreled gatling electromagnetic cannon in his hands, loaded with armor-piercing high-explosive rounds, made short work of obliterating the Ceph gunships.

The stream of fire spewed by the gatling cannon resembled a crimson whip; whichever gunship it lashed out at erupted into flames mid-air.

Faced with Wang Jing's swift slaughter, the Ceph forces adapted—or rather, the Ceph Overmind adapted.

Three gunships charged to the front, shielding a strangely shaped spacecraft from Wang Jing's firepower as they rapidly closed in on him where he hovered in the air.

Wang Jing spotted them immediately and poured all his firepower in their direction.

By the time Wang Jing eradicated two of the gunships, the strangely shaped vessel trailing behind was already dangerously close to him.

Just as Wang Jing prepared to launch the missiles from his dorsal pod to destroy the remaining craft, a shockwave suddenly expanded outward from the surrounding area of that rear vessel.

The missiles he had already fired lost propulsion mid-air and plummeted downward. Wang Jing, hovering in mid-air, suffered the same fate; the lights inside his mecha instantly died out as it likewise lost power and began a rapid, uncontrolled descent.

Seizing the moment, the surrounding Ceph spacecraft concentrated their fire on Wang Jing. Knowing the mecha's outer armor could absorb the punishment, he nevertheless chose to retreat to the prime dimension to evade the onslaught.

Yet, the absence of Wang Jing's defense did not mean the Ceph had seized air superiority. Dozens of Transformer fighters suddenly plunged into the battle at high speed.

With autocannons and heavy air-to-air missiles, they obliterated all remaining Ceph gunships in the blink of an eye.

This bought precious time for the Dimensional Expeditionary Army below, allowing their electronic equipment, temporarily disrupted by the electromagnetic pulse, to reboot and come back online.