"7 unitsâwhy so many! Find cover!"
Sol was getting pretty franticâPanâan wasnât a newbie. How could she let the drones catch up?
But now wasnât the time to lecture her. The priority was to take down the pursuing drones!
Military drones were deadly combat units, especially on flat terrain.
With their impressive mobility and lethal rapid-fire machine guns, these drones were a nightmare for most mercenariesâ
Seven Griffin drones could wipe out most Wanderer convoys and mercenaries in Evil Land!
Bam!
Sol ducked behind cover as a raccoon dog gunshot rang out. The bullet left a jagged trail through the air, scattering light in odd patterns.
At a distance of several hundred meters, a single shot had obliterated a Griffin drone. Sol looked at Jack, who had fired the shot, and gave him a thumbs-up. "Nice shot."
However, one inspiring shot couldnât halt the assault. After all, these were drones, not humans. A single shot wouldnât scare them off.
The Griffin drones sped towards the camp, Panâan watching helplessly from the car as they swooped overhead. In a panic, she slammed on the brakes and, before the car even stopped, let go of the steering wheel, leaping into the back seat to grab a rocket launcher!
Click!
The car jolted violently as it hit the ground, almost flipping over, but Panâan quickly righted herself and stabilized the steering wheelâ
Then she poked the rocket launcher out the window!
"Eat this!"
Boom!
The ground-to-air missile locked onto its target and hit it squarely!
Jack smacked his lips, "Gotta hand it to the Bright Family; theyâre loaded. Even got ground-to-air missiles..."
But that was the only one.
Having taken those hits, the remaining five drones suddenly dispersed, weaving through the air, making it hard to aim at them!
Some Wanderers at the camp ran to the machine gun turret, firing wildly, but with little effect!
Others with rifles and shotguns struggled even more to hit the fast-approaching drones, which returned fire amidst the barrage of bullets!
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tatâ
Bullets whizzed by, the accuracy low but the density high, hitting the gunner immediately!
The hail of bullets didnât just hit the gunner but also left deep marks on the trailer behind him!
An alarm bell rang in Jackâs mindâ
Lille was still in surgery!
The firepower of these drones was dense but not precise. The Wanderersâ trailer definitely couldnât withstand the dronesâ mini-guns!
Jack shouted at Sol, "Whereâs your hacker?"
"Sheâs on it! Hang tight!"
Before Sol could respond, a tough woman in sunglasses was already fiddling with her display screen in a corner, trying to hack inâ
But... it was challenging.
There are many scenarios in hacking. In the city, networks are everywhere, intertwined with wireless and wired networks, managed uniformly by the Jing Yuan-Grab curves.
But in the wasteland, itâs different, especially with drones that usually use fixed signal transmitters for wireless connections and remote control.
If there isnât an interface, youâll have to use a similar wireless signal transmitter to first connect to the same frequency, then compare protocols at the network layer and hunt for vulnerabilities.
But... it was quite difficult.
Another round of drones fired. Jack repositioned and fired a shotâbut Griffin was too fast and high!
The sunlight messed with his vision. The droneâs rapid movements were hard to target!
As he aimed and fired, Jack almost got hit by a bullet!
"Can you hurry up?"
"Leave it to her; sheâll get it done!" Sol yelled back as he fired. "Sheâs our best hacker. Did tech support for Military Technology. If she canât do it, weâre screwed!"
Carol felt immense pressure!
She was indeed a specialist in hacking military tech, having served with Military Technology during the Unification War!
But precisely because she was in the Unification War, she knew just how deadly these drones were!
Moreover, if Griffin managed to follow Panâan, it almost guaranteed someone nearby was controlling these machinesâ
If they werenât taken out too, the Tribe would remain at risk!
The wireless frequency bands used by Griffin drones constantly changed. Unless the user was also adept in hacking and communication tech, these frequency shifts had to be systematic, automaticâ
But to grasp this pattern, her brain had to work faster.
She knew every wasted second increased the Tribeâs danger!
So she decisively swallowed a neural enhancement pharmaceutical!
Her nerves sparked with activity, thinking faster, Carol quickly inputted the captured frequency shifts into her monitoring screenâ
The frequency band changes were fully visualized. She had to use fitting methods to derive a mathematical model for these changes...
And there would certainly be unfitted portionsâonly if the distortion rate stayed within the droneâs tech limits could stable command transmission and a potential hack succeed!
The fitting algorithm was a process demanding computational power, fundamental mathematical knowledge, and a lightning-fast stroke of insight!
Carolâs body temperature rose quickly. She reclined in her hacker chair, skin connected to the cooling systemâ
One try, two tries, three tries....
All failures!
Bam!
Jack hit a Griffin drone on its side. The raccoon dogâs powerful impact penetrated the drone, but it wasnât enough to stop it immediately!
The drone spun wildly from the bulletâs kinetic force, the engines going haywire, tumbling towards the central tower of the Wanderer Camp!
That spot housed the solar panels powering the camp!
Crashâ
A solar panel got hit, the massive battery panel started shakingâthen fell!
It was heading straight for Carolâs workspace!
"Mierda!!" Jack cursed, dropping the raccoon dog and rushing towards the workspace!
Crunch!
The precarious battery panel crashed down, plunging the Adkaduo Camp into despair!
Boom!
Sparks flew as the panel smashed through tents and trailers, raising a cloud of dust!
"Es terrible (This is terrible)..."
The dire scene Adkaduo anticipated didnât occur. Carol wasnât crushed to bits.
Jack, like Atlas bearing the weight of the world, was bracing against the fallen solar panel.
His arms were wide open, holding up the nearly ten-meter-wide panelâ
The panel itself wasnât very dense, but its size and the fall from over ten meters made the impact severe for Jack.
The panel was almost pressing into his chest, held up solely by his strong, gorilla-like armsâ
But clearly, Jackâs legs were straining, trembling violently, joints even appearing deformed.
The Adkaduo were awestruck, but the Griffin drones werenât.
A drone took aim at Jack, about to fireâ
Carol snapped out of her shock but still hadnât completed the first stage of the hack!
Suddenly, her network showed a slew of errors, as if someone had seized control of all the campâs facilities while she focused on the drones...
Carolâs face fell into despair...
But the next second, she noticed the drones in the sky sparking and smoking.
And not just one.
Several drones sparked and smoked in succession, powerlessly crashingâ
Rattleâ
Suddenly, the surgical trailer door burst open, Jack simultaneously lowering the solar panel.
V emerged boldly from inside, shouldering a raccoon dog, and said to Jack and the others, "Someoneâs controlling the drones nearby. If we rush, we can catch them in the act."
The Adkaduo snapped to their senses, engines roaring to life.
With the hacker chair suddenly losing power and the recent shock, Carol stared blankly at the surgical trailerâ
Lille stepped through the door, shaking off his coat.
"Emergency override, connecting to the network. You did good, Carol; without those few seconds, it wouldâve been much tougher."