bestfiction Chapter 428 Plane Crash
Chapter 428 Plane Crash
Anti-entropy, between the Arks.
Walter stared intently at the data on the screen, remaining silent.
"The pattern of the Honkai energy eruption, and the speed at which the hurricane spreads... without a doubt, Yang is a Herrscher."
Einstein, the most reliable (without exception) doctor of anti-entropy, informed him of a chilling conclusion: just now, the fourth collapse had occurred.
"The Fourth Collapse..."
Walter's voice was somewhat serious. What exactly went wrong?
Why did the fourth Honkai Impact happen so much earlier than expected?
Kevin's premature birth was his fault for not properly closing the gates of the Sea of Quanta. Schicksal attacked Anti-Entropy twice because he saved Dr. Magi and took the Tranquility Gem. So what about this time? What is the Fourth Honkai Impact?
That's not how history books write it! This is way ahead of what's recorded!
"Alliance Leader."
A calm voice came from behind Walter, belonging to Raiden Ryoma, who was wearing a dark suit.
“Schicksal just seized the Tranquility Gem, and we’re still dealing with the mess at the New Mexico base. We’re short-handed right now… After all, the new Herrscher was born in Schicksal’s territory. Maybe… we should wait and see for now?”
"Wait and see?"
Walter turned around, the reflection from his glasses obscuring his eyes from others—but he could see that several people behind Ryoma were unconsciously nodding slightly. Clearly, some of them agreed with Ryoma's point of view: Schicksal had just come to their territory and caused chaos, so Schicksal should just suffer the consequences of this Honkai!
“Ryoma, I don’t think we should just sit by and watch Otto capture the Herrscher.”
Before Walter could even begin to discuss the grand principles of human survival, Ai-in spoke up to refute the Thunder Dragon Horse on Walter's behalf. She walked to Walter's side, quickly swiping her fingers across the tablet to bring up real-time satellite images and energy maps.
"Everyone, the core outbreak point of this Honkai is located in Queenstown, New Zealand, the Oceania branch of Schicksal—as you all know, this is Schicksal's headquarters base in New Zealand, established several years ago under the pretext of curbing the spread of Anti-Entropy. Now it is paralyzed and inoperable, and Honkai energy radiation is spreading towards the Pacific Ocean at a speed of seventy kilometers per hour. Schicksal has just attacked us, and the Undying Blade in South America has reacted exceptionally quickly and has already been deployed to fight the Herrschers..."
She paused and looked around, and the room fell into a brief silence.
Everyone understood the consequences—if left unchecked, with the Immortal Blade's power, Schicksal had a good chance of capturing the Fourth Herrscher and studying her abilities. And after each Great Collapse, the ownership of the Herrschers would cause a major reshuffling of the power balance between the two major factions: the emergence of the First Herrscher propelled the North American branch to break away; although the Second Herrscher was dead, the influence of her core and the four Infinity Stones remained, and Otto not only used Sirin's corpse to initiate the Sirin Project but also utilized her powers to develop "Spacetime Rift"...
Aside from the fact that the Third Herrscher cannot be researched due to the protection policy of Theresa, the leader of Schicksal's Far East Branch, the appearance of a Herrscher always brings groundbreaking progress. Once this happens, the severe blow that Anti-Entropy just suffered will turn into another strategic imbalance.
In response to Einstein's statement, Longma presented another set of data.
"Doctor, I understand what you're saying. But the reality is, we've lost more than 10% of our tactical mechs at our New Mexico base, and our defenses in Alaska and the West Coast urgently need to be reinforced to prevent further attacks. If we were to divert troops now to intervene in the Herrscher incident in Oceania..."
He raised his eyes, his gaze sweeping over the thoughtful faces among the arks.
"We might suffer even greater losses in another surprise attack from Schicksal! Although I hate to admit it, Schicksal's mobile forces are far beyond what our Titans can handle. To put it more cynically, perhaps besides the Gemstone, Schicksal's aim in this attack is to create this situation where we have no choice but to stand by and watch when we are at our weakest... Aside from the already exposed Manila base, Queenstown is 3,000 kilometers away from our nearest Hawaiian base, and it would take at least twelve hours to deploy our forces and move the mechs! By the time we arrive, it's very likely..."
"We can't just ignore it, but it's too late to intervene..."
Tesla scratched her bright red hair in frustration.
"Ryoma, you mean... Schicksal, like Cocolia, deliberately created this Honkai to produce Herrschers? The attack was just to distract us and prevent us from attacking? But these are Herrschers! Even if that bastard Otto is playing with fire, he can't—"
“Otto never cares about playing with fire! He only cares about his own goals! If sacrificing a city, or even a country, can bring him the results he wants, he won’t even blink! Gentlemen, I’ve made up my mind.”
Walter's voice suddenly rang out. He took off his glasses, slowly wiped the lenses with the corner of his shirt, and then pushed them up.
This gesture silenced everyone—whenever Walter made this gesture, it meant he had made an irreversible decision.
"Ryoma, you're right. That's why we can't wait any longer."
Walter agreed with the speculation about the Thunder Dragon Horse—after all, that was Otto, the Otto Apocalypse who would stop at nothing to achieve his goals!
“Otto is indeed plotting against us, but that’s precisely why we can’t follow his script!”
Einstein and Tesla exchanged a glance.
"Leader, you mean..."
"Human infighting must stop at the moment the Honkai erupts."
His gaze swept over everyone present.
"Ryoma, you stay at headquarters and continue rebuilding the defenses; Ein, I need you and Tesla to complete an in-depth analysis of the Herrscher's energy characteristics within forty minutes. Whether it's Schicksal deliberately obstructing us or not, we cannot stand idly by! This is a catastrophe for all humanity! Every second of hesitation could mean the death of thousands more innocent people, and..."
Walter's gaze was fixed on several rapidly moving blue signal points at the edge of the image—the coordinates of the friendly forces he had just shared with Theresa.
“There are still people working hard there.”
Walter walked to the central control panel and placed his palm on the authentication screen. A blue light swept across it, and the system emitted the notification sound he had set.
[Highest privileges confirmed. Welcome back.]
"Joachim, you're going in person?!"
Seeing Walter about to activate quantum teleportation, Tesla hurriedly asked, "Isn't this a bit too hasty?"
"I am Welt Yang, the leader of Anti-Entropy, and the second acting Herrscher!"
Old Yang grabbed the coat hanging nearby.
"Gentlemen, we have no choice but to stand by and watch before the Herrscher! I will approach her before she is controlled by Schicksal..."
Einstein slightly widened his eyes.
"Yang, you want to try communicating with the Lawyer again?"
"Aiyin, trust me."
Walter's tone carried a deep sense of determination.
"If possible, I'd like to try to bring her back."
A brief silence fell over the conference room. Liesel Albert Einstein looked into the familiar light in Walter's eyes—the same light that had once appeared in the eyes of Joachim Nokianvitanen when he was a child and decided to bear the name "Walter."
……
Inside the research room.
"Damn it, another Herrscher! What are those bastards at Schicksal doing?! Didn't the previous intelligence say it was just a mid-stage Honkai? How did a Herrscher suddenly appear?!"
"Perhaps it's out of control? But I don't want to make assumptions."
With a nonchalant air, Einstein put down the data panel and glanced at Tesla.
"Dr. Tesla, what's the situation now?"
Tesla scratched his head in frustration.
"He's already set off, but the mech hasn't even finished its final adjustments yet! And now he's facing the load and risks of intercontinental warp jumps again... Sigh! In short, he's got a messy hairstyle. He's facing Herrschers in front of him, Valkyries behind him, a storm overhead that could tear a floating warship apart, and reinforcements that won't arrive until tomorrow... What kind of hellish environment is this?!"
A brief silence fell over the research room, broken only by the hum of the instruments and the clicking of data streams on the screens. Signals sent to the Queenstown base of the Oceania branch of Schicksal and the Hyperion of the Far East branch were repeated again and again, but there was no response—clearly, communications there had been completely paralyzed, and the idea of contacting allies was a pipe dream.
Unfortunately, they failed to fully understand the vehicles left behind by what were probably children from the future. Otherwise, even if they had thoroughly grasped their principles and built a similar engine to achieve a similar effect, their current support capabilities wouldn't be so awkward...
"Dr. Einstein, here is the information you requested."
Lei Dian Longma pushed open the door and placed an encrypted storage device on the analysis table. Einstein, his train of thought interrupted, took the device, skillfully connected it to the terminal, and quickly browsed the data windows that popped up.
"Ryoma, thank you. This information is extremely helpful in analyzing the unique characteristics of the current Herrscher energy and predicting the trends of Destiny..."
Thunder Dragon Horse smiled slightly. Although the situation was urgent, he was still happy to receive Dr. Einstein's affirmation.
"I'm glad I could help."
"Speaking of which, Ryoma, your performance at the meeting just now really surprised me."
Tesla, who had just been agitated, looked at Thunder Dragon Horse with a hint of doubt in his eyes.
"Your daughter was right there at the site of the collapse..."
"what?!"
Thunder Dragon Horse's heart skipped a beat, and then his blood rushed to his head, making him feel dizzy—the last time he felt dizzy and fainted was because he heard his daughter sleeping with that boy and misunderstood that it was unfriendly to him.
"Wait, Dr. Tesla, what are you saying?!"
Longma's voice suddenly rose, and he even disregarded etiquette, grabbing Tesla's arm. The usually composed middle-aged man was now deathly pale, and his breathing became rapid.
"You said Mei is...where is she?!"
Tesla was startled by his dramatic reaction, but quickly realized the problem. She slapped her forehead in frustration.
"Oh no, I forgot you've been dealing with the aftermath at the New Mexico base, you might not have seen the message shared by the Far East Branch..."
Einstein had already retrieved the data and turned the screen towards Ryoma. The image on the screen prominently displayed a photo of the six students from St. Freya Academy, washing up on the deck of the Hyperion…
"At the moment the Honkai erupted, they happened to be around the Fourth Herrscher."
Ryoma's hand trembled slightly.
"Why……"
His voice was a little hoarse.
Why would Theresa send her students to a place like that?
"We don't know either, but..."
Tesla, seeing Longma's flustered expression, softened his tone, a rare occurrence for him.
"Um, Ryoma... don't panic! Your daughter has that boy by her side, and they're both excellent Valkyries, so they can protect themselves..."
"Self-defense capability?"
Longma's eyes were bloodshot, and his eyeballs almost popped out.
"Dr. Tesla, that's a Herrscher! A Herrscher in the making! Even Schicksal's elite forces can suffer heavy casualties, and the Alliance Leader isn't confident of victory! What can a bunch of students do?!"
His fist slammed heavily on the control panel, making a dull thud.
"I have to go... I need to go now—"
"Um, if you set off now, you should still be able to catch up with the Titan forces..."