Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 837 Underwater Battle
"Torpedoes can't be used, so let's use close combat!" The Hound urged, "Go ahead and tear this thing apart with the saw blade!"
"I..." Chi Hanfeng swallowed with some difficulty. His hands, which were tightly gripping the joystick, kept shaking. His joints were creaking, but he could not spare any strength to push the joystick down.
"What's wrong with you?" The hound naturally noticed Chi Hanfeng's condition, "Old Chi, are you scared? I don't remember you being that kind of person..."
"I... I am no longer the Chi Hanfeng I used to be..." Chi Hanfeng bit his back teeth tightly and squeezed out words one by one from between his teeth. "Why do you think I retired after the battle even though I was not disabled?"
"Why?"
"Because I found that... since then, my hands would shake non-stop when I held the joystick of the mecha... I might be able to fly the mecha, but to control the mecha to fight... I can't do it." Chi Hanfeng said intermittently.
“Damn, Lao Chi, you should know very well that this is just a psychological barrier, there is nothing wrong with your hand at all!” The hound glanced at the ball of “hair” out of the corner of his eye. The other party was still floating in the same place, maintaining a distance of about ten meters from the submersible.
"I know it's a mental illness. I've seen a doctor, but it was useless." Chi Hanfeng shook his head.
"Lao Chi, this is just a submersible, not a mecha... You just need to control it to turn around, then rush over and shoot the Dragon Slaying Spear at that thing. It's very simple!" The Hound tried to persuade.
"No... My hands are not under my control at all..." Chi Hanfeng glanced at his hands and arms. The amplitude and frequency of the trembling were increasing, and even his shoulders began to shake.
"I'll do it." Zhuo Ligetu, who was sitting on the same side as Chi Hanfeng, nodded to the hound and reached out to grab the joystick. "Old Chi, just tell me how to drive."
"This joystick is used to control the propeller. Press and hold the third button from the top and push the joystick down at the same time to complete the turn. Then release the third button and switch to the first button to accelerate the submersible forward... As for the Dragon-Slaying Spear, the firing command is on the control panel." Chi Hanfeng said quickly while breathing rapidly.
"Okay, I understand." Zhuo Ligetu pulled and pushed the joystick, and the three propeller blades at the tail of the submersible immediately rotated. With the help of the compressed air ejected from the side of the fuselage, the entire submersible completed a tailswing and U-turn on the spot, facing the front of the thing that looked like a ball of messy hair.
The mechanical feet used to fix the submersible kicked hard on the street, and with the huge thrust generated by the tail thruster, the submersible rushed forward at a speed of about three meters per second - in this water pressure and density environment, this speed is already quite fast, not to mention the dragon-slaying spear that shot out from the belly of the submersible with a muffled sound. The crystal energy bomb that exploded in the barrel gave the dragon-slaying spear huge kinetic energy, and the tip covered with barbs and metal spines could easily penetrate even the chitinous carapace of the thunder beast.
But that thing was even faster. The moment the Dragon-Slaying Spear was fired, it whizzed around behind the submersible... With such speed and flexibility, it was as if the resistance of the sea water was completely non-existent to it.
Chi Hanfeng couldn't help but think of an old-era science fiction novel he had read, "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea". At the beginning of the novel, the "Nautilus" submarine, which was regarded as a monster by people, also circled around the warships that came to hunt it... Although this novel can no longer be regarded as a "science fiction work" in this era, the gap between the submersible and the monster in front of him still made Chi Hanfeng feel as if he had returned to the nineteenth century, lying on the deck of a steamship, watching in horror as the black shadow in the water circled around the ship at an incredible speed.
"Too fast! That thing is too fast!" Zhuoligetu exclaimed, "We can't even touch it in close combat!"
"Fire the torpedoes!" the hound roared. "Don't worry about that. Just use a saturation attack to cover the entire area. Even if it's fast, it can't be faster than the shock wave transmitted through the water, right?!"
"Then what should we do?" Zhuoligetu asked, "If the torpedo explodes at this distance, the submersible will definitely not be spared! We will all die!"
"Set the torpedo fuse in advance! Fire it far away, control the detonation distance, and control the boundary of the explosion range between the monster and us!" The Hound said, turning his gaze to Chi Hanfeng, "Old Chi, can you do this?"
"I'll...try!" Chi Hanfeng bit his lower lip hard, and the coppery smell of blood immediately filled his mouth, but this also suppressed the fear that was surging in his heart. He took a deep breath, pulled the touchpad in front of him, and quickly tapped on it with his ten fingers.
"Zhuoligetu, pay attention to that thing and keep a relative distance of more than ten meters from it at all times!" At this critical moment, Hound fully demonstrated the qualities of a battle-hardened frontline commander. Although his heart rate had soared to 180, his brain had become clearer than ever before. "Lao Chi, how long will it take?"
"The explosion range and the safe radius of the shock wave under this density have been calculated, and the relevant parameters are being set." Chi Hanfeng replied without even looking up, "Give me another ten seconds!"
"Move the detonation time forward by two seconds! I'm afraid we won't be able to kill this thing if we're too far away!" The Hound shouted, "Don't worry about us. If I'm not mistaken, that button should be used to activate the energy shield, right?"
The submersible is indeed equipped with a small or medium-sized shield generator, but as we all know, in an underwater environment, the evaporation of water due to heat consumes a lot of energy, so the use of energy shields in water will be greatly limited. Even if powered by a high-power energy converter, the shield can only last for one or two seconds.
Except for monster-level things like Yaguna Kotor.
The Hound has placed its bet on these one or two seconds - as long as the energy shield can be activated at the moment the shock wave arrives, it will be enough to ensure the safety of the submersible.
Outside the porthole, the ball of "hair" was quietly floating towards the submersible. At the same time, Zhuo Ligetu desperately pulled the joystick back, and the propulsion cabins on both sides continued to spray out high-pressure gas. A series of bubbles occupied one-third of the field of vision outside the porthole, pushing the submersible to retreat continuously - but even so, the distance between the submersible and that thing was still shrinking.
This is the result of the opponent's deliberate control of speed... If this ball of "hair" was chasing the submersible at the speed it just used to dodge the Dragon-Slaying Spear, it would probably have been stuck to the porthole by now.
The Hound already had his hand on the energy shield button. If the distance was shortened a few meters, he would press the button without hesitation even if the torpedo had not yet been launched - even if the energy shield could not burn this thing to death, it was better than doing nothing.
"Alright!" Chi Hanfeng raised his head suddenly, "We can fire at any time!"
"Fire now!" said the hound without thinking.
"Torpedoes No. 1 to 4, all fired!" Chi Hanfeng released the safety devices of torpedoes No. 1 to 4 in turn, and then pressed his thumb on the screen.
"Fingerprint recognition is correct." As these six words flashed on the screen, the torpedo compartments on both sides of the submersible opened one after another, and four miniature torpedoes, dragging a trail of white bubbles, shot quickly into the distance.
After the torpedo was fired, a rapidly ticking countdown appeared on the control panel screen, but before the countdown reached zero, four blurry flames lit up in the dark waters in the distance.
"This countdown refers to the time it takes for the shock wave to reach our location. So we spent a few extra seconds to calculate this," said Chi Hanfeng.
There were still six seconds left in the countdown, but the ball of "hair" was less than three meters away from the submersible, so that the robotic arm at the front end of the submersible could reach it by extending it - it was a pity that there were no weapons installed on the pair of robotic arms, and if they reached out rashly, they would only be entangled by the other party.
"There's no time to wait for the shock wave to arrive. If we delay for another second, this guy will catch us!" The Hound took a deep breath and directly pressed the button of the energy shield!
A layer of glittering light curtain suddenly enveloped the entire submersible, and the seawater in contact with the light curtain immediately began to boil. A large amount of white steam blocked all vision, and the piercing alarm of the shield generator overheating sounded in the ears.
Hound did not release his hand that was pressing the button. If he released it now, when the shock wave reached here, the four of them would have no chance of survival. Instead of waiting to die, it would be better to bet that this shield generator could perform exceptionally well and last for six seconds in this environment.
"The shield generator is overloaded by 270%! The temperature of the core module is 1,900 degrees! The protective shell has melted!" Chi Hanfeng said urgently, "The shield generator may explode at any time!"
In fact, he didn't need to say it, the other three also knew the situation of the shield generator - with the protective shell melted, the temperature inside the submersible had risen to nearly 80 degrees Celsius, and even turning the cooling device to maximum power was of no avail.
"Please, hold on for two more seconds!" The Hound glanced at the countdown on the screen and saw only two seconds left.
The seat under his butt was so hot that he couldn't sit still. The air he breathed in burned his nose and respiratory tract. The hair on the back of his hands and arms curled up, emitting a burning smell. There were constant dull explosions coming from the cabin where the shield generator was placed. The screen in front of Chi Hanfeng that was used to detect the shield generator had turned into a snowflake shape, which meant that all the monitoring devices set up in that cabin had been scrapped.
"Last second!" the hound roared at the top of his lungs.
The sea water swept over with a huge force, and the submersible, which had no time to be fixed with a robotic arm, was directly blown away. It rolled dozens of times and only stopped after crashing into the wreckage of a building.
…
"hiss……"
The hound, who was thrown all over the place, supported himself on a flat surface, which was not sure whether it was the bottom or the top, and managed to straighten his upper body. His vision was full of blood, as if he had just hit his head during the tumbling process, and the blood covered most of his face.
He subconsciously reached out his hand to wipe the blood off his face, but as soon as his palm touched his face, he cried out in pain - in addition to the bruise on his forehead, there were several blisters on his face, which were caused by the high temperature in the cabin. When he wiped them with his hand, they all broke, and the sticky blood flowed down the curve of his cheek, making him look particularly terrifying.
The situation of the other people was not much better. Chi Hanfeng and Zhuo Ligetu were also covered with wounds, bruises, abrasions, burns... Gui Xiao was even more unlucky. When he rolled over just now, he held on to the pull ring on the outside of the handrail tightly despite the heat. As a result, four of the five fingers of his left hand were bent at a weird angle towards the back of his hand, and the base of his fingers was a bloody mess.
"It... hurts so much." Chi Hanfeng rubbed his waist vigorously and reached out to feel for the medical insurance stuffed in the locker. Zhuo Ligetu immediately cast his eyes out of the porthole.
The searchlights were broken, and it was pitch black outside the portholes, and I couldn't see anything.
"Are you... okay?" The hound looked at the ghost owl and asked.
The latter was now grabbing the wrist of his injured hand with his other hand, gritting his teeth, his face was pale, and his chest was heaving violently - although the ghost owl did not scream, the pain was enough to send chills down one's spine just thinking about it.
"I... I'm fine... just... a broken bone." Ghost Owl managed to squeeze out these few words from between his teeth.
"You didn't even make a sound. You're a real man." The Hound smiled wryly and nodded at him. "Wait a moment. I'll give you an injection right away."
"Give me a shot" is a jargon in the army. This "shot" generally refers to morphine or similar painkillers or tranquilizers. No matter how serious the injury is or how high the chance of survival is, once a wounded soldier is rescued, his comrades will choose to give him a shot. The wonderful feeling of the unbearable pain gradually disappearing as the drug gradually takes effect is something that only those who have been injured on the battlefield can experience firsthand.
Chi Hanfeng finally pulled the medical kit out of the deformed locker. The Hound kept his promise and did not take care of his own injuries at the first moment. Instead, he found a painkiller and inserted it into the shoulder of the Ghost Owl.
With the injection of the medicine, the ghost owl's tense expression finally eased.
"Is that thing... still outside?" He turned his head, looked out the window and asked.
