death of hope

Chapter 1053 "Psionic Storm" (126) Sacrifice and Betrayal
Two kilometers away,

The scene of the float parade on Second Avenue in the city center.

Complete chaos ensued. The free fast food provided by the organizers lost its appeal, and onlookers fled in panic. For some reason, the exits were blocked, leading to a massive stampede.

"What...is this...?"

Pavel Korchagin was nearly swept away by the surging crowd and had to climb onto a Roman column on the exterior of the bathhouse's decorative wall to take shelter from the storm.

He rolled up his sleeves, checked the tablet on his arm, and saw the two boxes representing the sniper team on the screen change from green to red, then an exclamation mark appeared, and finally the heartbeat turned into a straight line.

"Waaah... Takiya-nee... Uncle Demi... they all... sacrificed themselves..." Ando Shuichi sobbed sadly on the communication channel.

"What happened? Our plan has been exposed?!" Sergei shouted angrily.

"I don't know what's going on either... Everyone, calm down and stay where you are..."

Before Paul could even react, Nikolai's furious roar, as loud as thunder, exploded in the channel;
"Calm down my ass! I can't calm down!"
My man… Takiya is dead! Demi-Kiri is dead! My old comrade Z, who's been with me for ten years! Just like that, he died without any explanation! Dead!

I'm so pissed! How did the other side know our sniping positions?

Where's Old Cui, the lookout for the sniper team?! He should be on the first floor keeping watch!
Paul! I, Paul, am not your equal! Stop playing dead! Speak!
What's wrong with your people?! What's with that bastard Tristana's pointy ears?! Why did you let the enemy upstairs?!
Why was the senator prepared for the sniper attack? How was the other side able to stop that sure-hit bullet?!
why? !

Paul! Answer me!!!

·
Nikolai was filled with grief and indignation. His old friend of ten years had died so inexplicably. Even the toughest man couldn't bear this.
By the time he finished shouting those last few sentences, Nikolai's voice was hoarse and he had lost his mind, becoming hysterical. He disregarded his rank and began yelling at his commander.

As a veteran GRU agent, Nikolai had long since become indifferent to life and death. He could accept his own death and the heroic sacrifice of his comrades in the mission, but he could not accept such a fallacy and absurd death.

Paul was stunned by the barrage of insults, and it took him a few seconds to recover:
"Old Trevor! Talk to me if you hear me! Drizzt! Talk to me if you hear me!"

With a sob in her voice, Donya said, "I called Old Cui fifteen minutes ago and someone answered... but now I can't get in touch with him for some reason... I don't know if it's a signal problem or if he's already... sacrificed himself..."

"The system showed that his heart rate and blood pressure were normal, and the satellite location was on the first floor of the unfinished building," Ando Hideichi added.

"strangeness…"

Paul struggled to calm his wildly beating heart, taking deep breaths to force himself to think things through; (Damn it... I'm still too young... too inexperienced... I was blinded by emotion just now... I forgot to prioritize the mission... Calm down, analyze the situation...)
"The sniper team is wiped out... The senator is hiding behind the shield wall, inside the float, and could move at any moment. If she gets into the military base... the mission will fail..."

"No time to lose... Tech team! Now! Immediately! Execute Plan B!"

"Received... Commander..."

·
Inside the massive warehouse of the Walmart shopping plaza, Ando Shuichi and Donya exchanged a glance and lightly bumped fists.

"We must complete the mission... We can't let Takiya and Demigod sacrifice themselves in vain..."

The two put on VR headsets and entered first-person flight control mode.

"Drone swarm...start!"

A large cluster of LED lights suddenly lit up on the warehouse floor, engines started up with a buzzing sound like bees, and three hundred Z-Killer drones took off, lined up in columns, and flew out from the dismantled floor-to-ceiling windows.

Leveraging the hackers' formidable technical skills, coupled with AI assistance, the drone swarm charged toward the senators' parade in a pre-programmed formation. Each 'Scalpel' Z-Killer drone carried an M3 high-explosive mortar shell or an RPG-29 depleted uranium armor-piercing round; no matter how strong the shield wall or composite armor, it could not stop the swarm from obliterating the target.

This plan is too powerful and could cause civilian casualties, so it can only be used as Plan B, a backup plan placed after the sniper plan.

The drone signal is transmitted using the original towed fiber optic method. The disadvantage of this method is that the remote control distance is limited by the length of the cable, and it can only be used for close-range ambushes. The advantage is that it is stable, the video signal is clear, and it is not affected by any electronic warfare equipment.

The swarms of bees, emitting a terrifying buzzing sound, flew close to the building walls, using cover to approach their targets. This kind of flying, like dancing on a knife's edge, requires extremely high skill from the pilots. Even the slightest mistake could result in a crash into the walls and a mass of planes falling.

As a top drone pilot, Hideichi Ando passed the test, and Donya was also qualified as his assistant. Her AI algorithm program enabled 300 drones to be arranged in the most reasonable formation, passing quickly without the fiber optic cables trailing behind them getting stuck.

·
Everything seemed perfect, but little did they know they were stepping into the enemy's trap.

Without any warning, the advertising airship that was projecting holographic images suddenly released an even larger swarm of 'bees'.
Thousands of drones of various types, like a locust plague of apocalyptic magnitude, descended upon the city like a dark cloud looming over it.

The enemy had 1,000 interceptor drones. They used grenade launchers to launch nets woven from Kevlar fibers, which wrapped around 300 Z-kill drones that were approaching the float, causing them to crash.

The remaining hundreds of drones all headed straight for the Walmart shopping center warehouse, directly towards the location where the two hackers were hiding, clearly indicating that they had known this all along.

"Our drones... have all been intercepted..." Ando Shuichi took off his VR headset, his forehead covered in sweat.
"They know our route! They've already set up an ambush!"

"I can't worry about that anymore!" Donya took off her VR headset, grabbed her assault rifle and ammunition pouch, and started running with Ando in her arms;

"Retreat! The swarm is coming!"

The two descended the stairs through the escape route, only to hear an explosion from the warehouse behind them. A swarm of bees turned the entire floor into a sea of ​​fire; if they were even a little slow, they would be roasted to a crisp.

Downstairs in the shopping mall, federal agents had been lying in ambush for a long time, firing through the security door into the stairwell. Ando Hideki was riddled with bullets in an instant.

Donya managed to escape by hiding behind cover, but watched as Ando Shuichi's body, like a tattered rag, slid down the stairs.

(He's so young... he hasn't even had a girl's hand...)
There was no time for sadness. Donya threw out three smoke grenades in quick succession, and then threw several flashbangs downstairs, trying to buy herself a little hope of escape.

Tonya groped her way through the smoke, used a plastic bomb to blast open the locked security door to the terrace, took a running start, and jumped onto the airbag of a giant advertising airship.

With no place to cling to the smooth surface of the airbag, Tonya slid down, nearly falling to her death, when she finally grabbed onto a cosmetics advertisement banner. She 'rappelled' to the top of a double-decker bus, which was being used as an obstacle across the street.

Donya used the roof of the bus as a running start to leap to the second floor across the street, onto the 'Kyoto Courtesan' nail salon sign, and smashed the glass inside with a fierce elbow strike.

The nail salon was dark and not open for business; all the employees had run off to watch the commotion. Finally, they had shaken off their pursuers and could catch their breath.

Donya, panting heavily, spoke into the communicator;
"Commander...our channel is being tapped...please switch to the backup channel..."

Ando-kun sacrificed himself... The enemy laid a trap for us... I almost lost mine too...

This situation... can only be explained in one way: someone leaked the plan to the enemy...

Tristana…

He's a traitor...

'