Chapter 75: Three Warnings
Mondok knew what the right course of action was, but he didn’t dare to do it.
Simply put, he was afraid of dying.
Hesitating and wavering, but as he floundered in indecision, Gu Hang’s footsteps remained firm and drew ever closer.
He was aware of this, and as time passed, he began to realize that he could no longer afford to hesitate.
At this moment, making a decision, even if it was the wrong one, wouldn’t be as catastrophic as doing nothing at all.
He really didn’t dare to confront the Governor’s authority and the threat of the Space Marines directly; but surrendering to the Governor was no longer an option.
Nor was he willing to abandon his current position and retreat into the inner city, as that would destroy his credibility.
A General who abandons his troops can never regain their loyalty, and the Governor might really seize command of the army under the guise of righteousness.
In the end, he chose a compromise.
…
Gu Hang was finally stopped.
To be honest, he was disappointed by this.
The reaction was too slow.
Although this scenario was one of the many possibilities he had anticipated.
The soldiers might be paralyzed by the Governor’s authority, by the suddenness of the situation, and by the fact that no shots had been fired.
This was precisely why Gu Hang chose to set out at dawn, when many were still asleep, and why he avoided shooting at the checkpoint.
But now that it had happened, he marveled at his opponent’s indecision.
If Gu Hang were in the opposite position, he would have decisively ordered the heavy artillery and tanks to be brought up, regardless of collateral damage and consequences, and just bombarded the enemy first.
Did Mondok not realize that he couldn’t survive?
He was still hesitating, but there was nothing to hesitate about.
Of course, if the enemy had done that, Gu Hang wouldn’t have been afraid.
He had means to break the deadlock since he dared to come.
Heavy artillery couldn’t kill the Space Marines, couldn’t kill the Battle Nuns, and couldn’t kill him either.
More precisely, it couldn’t hit them.
But since that hadn’t happened, there was no need to dwell on it.
As for the current obstruction, Gu Hang paid it no mind.
About a company of soldiers, led by several officers, had tightly blocked the road ahead.
They seemed to have arrived in a hurry, without even setting up a proper checkpoint, just using their bodies to block the path, and they hadn’t fired a shot.
An officer stood at the front, holding a loudspeaker and shouting:
“Stop advancing! We will open fire after three warnings! The Governor must come alone!”
Listening to the warning, Gu Hang also saw that the soldiers blocking the road had already raised their guns, fingers on triggers, ready to fire at any moment.
Three warnings?
A cold smile played on Gu Hang’s lips.
“These in front of us are truly rebels,” Gu Hang remarked softly.
As the officer opposite was about to issue the second warning, in that instant, a bombshell fired, obliterating his torso.
The diamond-tipped large-caliber projectile completely destroyed the officer’s upper body.
The highly penetrative bombshell, still with momentum, passed through another soldier and exploded in the crowd.
The characteristics of a standard bombshell, aside from the highly penetrative large-caliber projectile, include an explosive fuse and a micro-shaped charge.
When it explodes, the mix of blast force and shrapnel is even more powerful than an average hand grenade or rifle grenade.
In the hands of the Space Marines, the bombshell gun is a crushing weapon to ordinary troops.
It can act as a rapid-fire small-caliber grenade launcher against light infantry or be used as an armor-piercing round against armored units.
After penetrating armor, the bombshell explodes inside, killing the targets within the vehicle.
When the seven Space Marines opened fire simultaneously, their bombshell guns covered the hundred or so soldiers forming a human wall on the road.
In an instant, they were thoroughly annihilated.
Even with two tanks among these soldiers, it was just as futile.
If it were a main battle tank from the Star Fleet like the Lion Tank, then indeed the bombshell gun would barely itch. But the two tanks present were merely local products of Fury Owl Planet’s military factories, not the main battle tanks of the Star Fleet.
They might look heavily armored, but their design, technology content, and materials were substandard, unable to withstand the diamond-tipped bombshells.
The bombshell pierced the armor and exploded inside the tanks.
A hole in the tank might not be a big issue, but the people inside definitely had no chance of survival.
During this, a few soldiers managed to react and squeezed their triggers, firing at the Space Marines.
But by the time they were nearly all dead, there might not have been more than twenty shots fired, with the vast majority missing, and the few that hit did not even scratch the Space Marines’ power armor.
A Space Marine at the front said, “What gave these mortals the courage to stand in an open area on the road in a dense formation without cover, without fortifications, with inferior equipment, and still try to stop us?”
Gu Hang knew the speaker was Schneider.
This bald-headed warrior, when not wearing his helmet, was an elite soldier beyond a mere veteran.
Gu Hang could also tell that this man had some friction with Battalion Leader Salas Martins.
But for now, Gu Hang had no time to concern himself with these issues or Schneider’s recent comment.
He had more important things to do.
His psychic energy amplified, augmenting the vibrations of his voice in the air, carrying his words to the ears of the many soldiers who witnessed the one-sided slaughter:
“I am the Imperial Governor, the ruler of the Alliance. Anyone who dares to obstruct me shall be regarded as a traitor! I command all soldiers to stand down and await further instructions!”
“I am the Imperial Governor… All soldiers, stand down and await further instructions!”
…
The words echoed through the air like waves, reverberating continuously.
At the same time, the pace of Gu Hang and his entourage suddenly quickened.
The Space Marines and Battle Nuns, when moving at full speed, were as fast as armored vehicles.
Their explosive power surpassed sprint champions, and their stamina was greater than long-distance runners.
And Gu Hang, of course, would not chase after them on foot. His telekinesis came into effect again, an invisible force lifting his body, allowing him to hover and keep up with the extraordinary warriors, ensuring he remained under their protection.