Chapter 7517 Terrans Are Not Afraid Of Sacrifice

Before the squad of Woodsap mechs had even begun to fight the deathborn properly, a disaster had occurred!

Half of the Woodsap mech pilots had lost their minds!

Outside factors had magnified the paranoia and misgivings they held against the elves and certain other grievances, causing them to completely lose sight of the bigger picture!

This produced catastrophic consequences!

The Second Elf still couldn't believe that his brothers-in-arms would lose so much perspective that they actually dared to turn their weapons against their own side!

"WAKE UP! YOU ARE BEING BRAINWASHED BY THE DEATHBORN! WE ARE ALL TERRANS! DO NOT OPEN FIRE AGAINST YOUR OWN BROTHERS!"

Despite his pleas, the maddened pilots completely disregarded his message and fought back even harder!

"ELVES AND THE HUMANS WHO HAVE BETRAYED THEIR OWN RACE MUST DIE!"

The fight started off chaotic, as it did not immediately become clear who had become bewitched by the enemy's unfathomable means.

However, they soon figured out which ones had become enthralled by the enemy's invisible scheme and which ones retained their wits.

The latter fell into a disadvantage due to losing the initiative and fell into indecision.

Even the Second Elf had not made up his mind whether to launch a full counterattack!

"Sir!" One of the other elven mech pilots spoke up! "Our energy reserves were already half-depleted from the start, and this fight is causing us to drain them even faster! We cannot afford to stay on the defensive. We need to strike back properly if we want to survive!"

"Don't kill them, please! Our brothers and sisters are mesmerised, not fallen! They can still be saved!"

The Second Elf would have dearly liked to snap his maddened subordinates out of their brainwashed state, but he completely lacked the means to accomplish this feat!

There was no time to figure out a good solution. As much as he hated it, Caracalla Shuku issued the only order that made sense from his perspective.

"Retreat." He said with a sigh. "Do not fight if you can avoid it. Do so if you have no other choice. Forget about attacking the deathborn. It is impossible for us to accomplish anything in our current condition. The only objective that matters is returning to the fleet with the intelligence that we have gathered. I also believe that as long as we manage to lure our mesmerized comrades back to friendly space, they can recover their sanity again. Above all else, remember that your survival is more important than theirs."

His remaining soldiers felt relieved after hearing this. While it was a cowardly act to prioritize withdrawal over fighting, none of them wanted to fight their fellow Woodsap mech pilots to the death!

The withdrawal began immediately.

Half of the Woodsap mechs that had already suffered a number of hits began to fly straight back towards the presumed location of the combined fleet.

The biomachines turned their backs on the neat formation of deathborn and the alien formation anchor without any regrets.

While the normal Woodsap mechs made good way, the compromised Woodsap mechs did not allow their presumed enemies to depart without a challenge!

The latter immediately started a pursuit and began to assail their targets with continuous firepower!

The azure energy shields did not last long. A few loyal Woodsap mechs already began to incur damage to their mech frames and most particularly their flight systems!

This caused their situation to deteriorate even further!

All mech pilots, even the newer ones that had recently become Woodsap mech pilots, learned that in this kind of situation, the mech that was being pursued always suffered a disadvantage.

Mechs always had to avoid situations where they presented their weakest side to the enemy.

A pursuit just happened to be one of the scenarios that could not prevent this from happening.

Though the Woodsap mechs were designed to be resilient and enduring, the flight system's inherent vulnerabilities could not be erased so easily.

The brainwashed Woodsap mech pilots may have forgotten how to distinguish between friends and enemies, but they somehow retained almost all of their combat skills and acumen!

With the ease of control provided by the Hibiscus System, the compromised Woodsap mech pilots managed to land their shots fairly easily.

Three Woodsap mechs suffered a drop in their acceleration rate, causing them to fall behind and make it even harder to shrug off the pursuers!

The pilots of the three biomachines made a spontaneous decision at the same time. They only spent a few seconds on communicating between themselves in order to confirm they were of the same mind.

They soon commanded their organic machines to turn around on their own initiative.

The mobility-impaired Woodsap mechs no longer sought to flee, but instead confronted the compromised biomechs in order to hinder their pursuit as best as possible!

"What are you doing?! I did not order you to engage in a rear guard action! Turn around this instant and resume your flight!"

"It is hopeless, sir! I am sorry for disobeying your instructions, but Terrans like us are not afraid of sacrifice! If we can keep our mad colleagues occupied, then that should be enough to help you return to the fleet intact! You can request the Saint Commander to send reinforcements to us after that. We will do our best to last as long as possible before rescue arrives! Now go!"

As much as the young elf wanted to tell his disobedient subordinates to give up on their foolhardy intentions, the situation was too precarious to indulge in any doubts.

Decisiveness trumped indecision.

Caracalla Shuku had learned that it was often, but not always, better to make a suboptimal decision and see it through the end than to repeatedly change your mind!

There was definitely no room for exceptions in this case.

The Second Elf suppressed his growing doubts and misgivings and continued to lead his Rosenstorm and his remaining two followers back to the combined fleet.

It felt dishonorable to leave his remaining brethren to fight and die against a numerically superior force of compromised Woodsap mechs, but partial annihilation was better than total annihilation!

The mission had to come first.

They could not afford to let all of this sacrifice go in vain.

Time passed by at an uncertain rate.

The lack of distinguishing marks within the dark miasma made it a little more difficult to keep track of the passage of time.

Even though every Woodsap mech possessed their own precision timers, Caracalla Shuku no longer dared to place blind trust in his bonded partner's performance.

He had witnessed too many perplexing setbacks today. The enemy proved way more capable than he initially thought. Their means of attack were varied and indirect, making it difficult to figure out whether they had already fallen victim again!

"Maintain your focus and keep your mental barriers up. Do not assume that we have left the danger zone."

Seconds passed.

The pursuit had stalled for the moment.

Though the rearguard did not have numbers on their side, they still posed enough of a threat to hinder the pursuit of the compromised biomechs.

Even if the latter only got stalled for a dozen seconds or so, that was enough to give the Rosenstorm and the other two loyal biomechs enough of a headstart to maintain relative safety!

Still, the Second Elf and his remaining soldiers did not dare to relax. The pursuers had already begun to split up their forces.

If their guess was not wrong, then 2 or 3 compromised biomechs were still pressing to catch up and complete their supposed goal!

Fortunately, the loyal biomechs did not have to flee much further before they returned to the safe pocket of space occupied by the combined fleet.

Caracalla Shuku loudly sighed in relief as soon as his Rosenstorm and the other two Woodsap mechs flew out of the dark miasma and received the protection of Casella's Command Field again.

They could feel the strong and reassuring willpower of the Larkinson Clan's ace commander sweeping over their minds and spiritualities with sharp focus.

"Report." The Saint Commander ordered even though she must have already gathered enough clues to build a fairly accurate picture.

Nonetheless, the Second Elf did not dare to be negligent on a matter of such importance. He first transmitted his bonded partner's data logs. He then proceeded to give a very brief summary of what had happened.

The Saint Commander only paused for a few seconds before making up her mind.

"Understood. The opposition that you have encountered is… weaker, but also much more tricky than we foresaw. Now that we have tentatively confirmed that no obviously powerful alien champions or armies are lurking at the energy vortices, we must begin to take action."

The Dark Zephyr Mark III made the first move.

The Second Elf's remaining subordinates needed rescue, and no better was suited for this task than the fastest mech in the combined fleet!

"I will have your men back in a jiffy!"

"Godspeed, Saint Tusa."

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