diskusbooks Chapter 123 First Victory: Kalis
Chapter 123 First Victory: Kalis
Kalis is located next to the Iron Fortress.
There is an underground fusion reactor, buried deep beneath the city, which powers Kalis's urban energy, outer shield, medical zone power supply, and is part of the Iron Fortress critical defense line.
The Autobots have already suffered repeated setbacks, and if Kalis cannot be saved, Iron Fortress will be in grave danger.
Therefore, Kalis cannot retreat.
-
The Decepticons' attack began at the heavy transport lines on the outskirts of the city.
The tank squad was the first to arrive.
This time, the most direct and violent siege was adopted.
The first defensive gate was blown open, and the entire southern block resounded with deafening roars. Shattered outer armor plates rained down from above, and the sirens were torn apart by the artillery fire.
The Kalis garrison has already entered a state of combat readiness.
The tank convoy's advance method was brutal and simple—fire, crush, fire again.
The attacking artillery fire landed on the outer shield, causing its light screen to flicker violently. Explosive charges swept into the defensive platform from the flanks, and the deafening heavy firepower kept the ground defenders from raising their heads. Deceptive channels continuously emitted jamming signals, while vortexes flew overhead, turning the retreat route into chaos.
Kalis's city center continuously requests power from the underground reactor.
[Outer shield compensation.]
The south platform is now under emergency lockdown.
The medical area has switched to independent power supply.
[The output of the underground fusion reactor has been increased.]
As applications were approved one by one, the reactor deep within the city began to increase its power.
A low tremor rose from the ground, spreading along the streets, bridges, support pillars, and defensive walls, temporarily stabilizing the battle line.
Soon, the five sets of signals from the tank squad overlapped at the same coordinates.
Alita initially detected the anomaly from the Iron Fortress tactical channel.
"They're combining!"
Immediately afterwards, the surveillance footage of the battlefield on the eastern side of Kalis flickered.
Five machines reassembled, snapped together, and locked in amidst the smoke and dust. Armor plates flipped over, tracks and gun barrels converged into the new frame, and a massive mechanical silhouette rose from the flames.
The Brutal Leopard appeared in the center of the Kalis Street district.
Tall and heavy, it dwarfed the surrounding buildings when it stood there. City defense cannons fired at its shoulder armor, creating only a few flashes of light, but failing to stop it from advancing.
It raised its arm and punched the defensive bridge in front of it.
The bridge broke in the middle, and the energy lines scattered blue-white sparks like torn nerves.
With the second punch, a corner of the outer shield on the south side of Kalis collapsed.
"Increase reactor output by another seven percent," the Kaliss central clerk said, his voice strained.
"It's approaching the safety threshold."
"Increase!"
The underground fusion reactor emitted an even deeper rumble.
The city's shield lit up halfway again, barely managing to block the next barrage from the Chaos Leopard.
That layer of light lasted only a few seconds before being shattered into scattered light by heavy firepower.
The Chaos Leopard continued its advance towards the central area, with a clear objective—the main control shaft of the underground reactor.
-
When Optimus Prime arrived at the front lines of Kalis, the central defense line had already retreated to the Third District.
He jumped off the transport ship and landed in the middle of a shattered street.
As soon as they landed, Hun Tianbao's artillery fire came from the front.
Optimus Prime raised his weapon and charged forward head-on.
An explosion occurred between the two.
The shockwave swept across half the street, and several evacuating soldiers were thrown backward by the force of the impact.
Jazz rushed in from the side, grabbed one of them, and pushed him towards the cover.
"Don't stand there admiring the view! It's a terrible view."
The defenders staggered and crawled into their bunkers.
Jazz looked up as the leopard took another step: "The more I look at this thing, the less appealing it becomes."
A voice came through the communication channel: "I think it's quite conspicuous."
Before Jazz could reply, the red aircraft had already slid off from the side.
The horizontal cannon is very fast.
The red main armor flashed past in the firelight, while the gray and black secondary armor skimmed low over the wreckage of the city. Simultaneously, his energy sword shot out; the instant the blade lit up, the entire machine followed a sharp, thrown trajectory.
"Sidebark, don't be reckless!" Optimus Prime's voice came through the channel.
"I know!"
Sidewinder answered so quickly that it was hard for the machine to believe he really knew.
He slid past the right leg of the Chaos Leopard, his twin swords slashing at the knee-connecting lock.
The first sword strike sparked, the second sword cut into the gaps in the armor.
The leopard looked down and finally noticed the little red trouble at its feet.
Immediately, a giant hand slammed down.
The horizontal bar lurched to the side, skimming across the ground as it emerged from the shadows. A palm strike landed behind him, creating a crater in the ground and sending his entire machine flying halfway off course.
He rolled to the ground, his heels leaving two long streaks of sparks as he landed.
"Almost." He gasped for breath, and there was even a hint of laughter in his voice.
Jazz jumped onto the broken bridge from the other side, and upon hearing this, almost wanted to turn off the communication channel.
"Do you have a slightly different understanding of the word 'almost'?"
"I wasn't flattened."
"The standards are too low!"
Before Sideswipe could retort, Hun Tianbao had already turned around.
Its heavy cannon locked onto Optimus Prime again, while its other arm swept to the side. Sideswipe's previous attack hadn't actually severed the connection lock; it had only slowed its right leg's movement for a moment.
Jazz saw it, and so did Optimus Prime.
"Lead it toward the central defense line," Optimus Prime said.
The jazz immediately understood what he meant.
The Kalis underground fusion reactor can no longer be passively powered; it must be incorporated into the defense system.
Jazz accessed the city's central channel.
"Kalis, is the third zone defense bridge still usable?"
"The structure is 47 percent damaged and cannot withstand the passage of heavy units."
"That's perfect."
"What?"
"Prepare it to withstand one."
The other side remained silent for half a second.
"This is not a standard defense plan."
Jazz watched as Ultra Magnus approached step by step: "Don't try to imitate Ultra Magnus at a time like this! This thing isn't even standard anymore!"
There was no further contention on Kalis's side. The energy rails beneath the third zone's defense bridge were relit, and the underground fusion reactor began supplying energy to that area.
Light shone in segments from the broken part of the bridge, forcibly reconnecting the nearly extinguished framework.
Optimus Prime stood head-on against Devastator's barrage of fire, without retreating an inch.
The side guns launched another surprise attack from the flank.
This time, he moved quickly around the leopard's right leg, his two swords constantly creating shallow wounds in the same area.
Annoyed by him, Hun Tianbao turned to the side.
Now, it stepped onto the third zone's defensive bridge, causing the bridge to sink violently.
"Now!" the jazz shouted.
Kalis, the master controller, instantly pushed the fusion reactor's power supply to its maximum.
The magnetic lock array beneath the defensive bridge suddenly activated, and a blue-white beam of light burst from the crack in the bridge surface, directly blasting the Hun Tian Leopard's right leg.
The leopard paused for a moment.
Optimus Prime seized the opportunity, rushed forward, and punched the joint of its chest armor.
Simultaneously, Hengpao leaped up from a low position, crossed his two swords, and with all his might, cut into the gap in the knee that he had just repeatedly sliced open.
Sparks flew everywhere.
The Chaos Leopard let out a deep, mechanical roar.
Its right leg sank, and the center of gravity of the entire massive machine finally shifted.
Jazz leaped off the broken bridge, using an exposed energy line to swing to its side and behind, where he clipped a makeshift explosive device into the gap next to the combination lock.
"Here's a small gift for you."
He let go and landed.
The moment the explosive device detonated, the combined structure of the Chaos Leopard vibrated violently, and the five sets of signals began to split.
A furious roar erupted from within the Chaos Leopard: "Hold on!"
The magnetic lock array tore apart its right leg, Optimus Prime pressed down head-on, Sideswipe's twin swords continued to pry open the connecting structure, and Jazz's demolition device exploded right at the most vulnerable point of the combined synchronization.
Hun Tianbao staggered backward.
The entire defensive bridge could not withstand the strain and suddenly broke apart.
The massive machine crashed to the side, smashing into half of an abandoned industrial platform.
The merging signal was completely lost, and the tank team was forced to disintegrate.
Several Decepticon machines tumbled out of the dust and smoke, looking disheveled but not incapacitated, and quickly retreated.
Just as Hengpao raised his sword, Jazz stopped him, saying, "Don't chase."
"They're running away!"
"My glasses aren't broken."
"Then why not go after them?"
The jazz officer looked at the still-smoking streets ahead: "Because we're protecting Kalis, not your reputation."
Hengpao opened his mouth, but swallowed his words back.
Optimus Prime walked in from the other side, with obvious burn marks on his shoulder armor, but his voice was calm and steady.
"Prioritize confirming the reactor status."
A weary response came through the communication channel from the controller, Kalis.
"The fusion reactor is stable, and the output has dropped back to the safe threshold."
A few seconds later, he added another sentence.
"The core area of the city remains."
A moment of silence fell over the battlefield of Kalis.
Then, cheers erupted in the Autobots' channel, and more and more voices followed.
Kalis held the line, the Brutal Leopard was repelled, and the underground fusion reactor remained unharmed.
This was the Autobots' first real victory since the outbreak of the war.
Standing on the edge of the broken bridge, Bangpao looked down at the sparks and marks on his twin swords. His optics were very bright, and he had a smile on his face, as if he wanted to be the center of attention and raise his hand in a cheer.
The jazz officer glanced at him: "Don't tell me you won beautifully."
Hengpao immediately shut up, but after a while, he couldn't help but say, "But they did win."
Jazz simply looked at the shattered blocks south of Carlisle, the medical teams evacuating the wounded, and the blackened bridge beneath the reactor overload.
"Yes," he said. "We won."
The voice was soft, not like a celebration.
-
The good news of Kalis' first victory quickly reached Iron Castle.
For the first time, channels that had been receiving bad news for too long finally lit up with a different colored marker.
[Kalis, hold the line.]
The underground fusion reactor is stable.
The Chaos Leopard was defeated.
The Iron Fortress defensive line is temporarily stable.
Many cities have reconnected their communications.
Some flashed briefly, some sent confirmation signals, and some remained silent for a long time before reopening the public channel that they were about to shut down.
A single victory may not change the course of the battle, but it is nonetheless crucial.
-
In the second cycle after the Jazz's victory, they grabbed Sideswipe and headed to Crystal City.
Sideswipe originally thought they would go straight back to Ironforge for a debriefing or to the medical station to treat the crack in his body, but Jazz only slapped a temporary patch on him.
"Stick it on."
Hengpao looked down and said, "That's it?"
"You want more of a ceremony?"
"I just witnessed the Autobots' first victory!"
"Then you should learn to apply the repair patches yourself."
Pangolier glared at him: "Is this how you usually criticize new machines?"
The jazz musician walked ahead, his tone flat: "No. I usually use a more tactful approach."
Hengpao didn't immediately understand whether this was considered a consolation.
The neutral passage to Crystal City opened upon their arrival.
After the two machines scanned the protocol and deactivated their heavy firepower privileges, they entered the inner area.
I've been watching the whole thing.
Science City, a long-established city, a neutral zone, and even the sleeping chief judge is placed here.
Hearing about something and seeing it with your own eyes are completely different.
The crystal towers floated quietly in the distance, with light flowing from above and falling on the transparent walls. There were no scorch marks like those on the battlefield of Kalis, nor the ever-burning red alert in the Iron Fortress's situation room.
This made Sideswipe a little uncomfortable for a while.
"This doesn't feel like a war zone," he said.
The jazz murmured, looking ahead, "It's best not to look like that."
Hengpao didn't quite understand, but unusually, he didn't ask any further questions.
Deep within the medical tower, the door to the hibernation chamber slowly opened, and Bangbang instinctively fell silent.
The vector was lying in the hibernation pod.
The deep purple armor appeared serene under the cold light; the machine showed signs of repair but did not appear fragile. The blue-green light of the flame shone through the transparent hull and fell on the small silver-gray nameplate on the side of her neck.
Sideswipe stared at her for a while: "So... she's the one who made both sides afraid to open fire in Crystal City?"
The jazz tilted his head to look at him.
Hengpao immediately added, raising his hands in surrender: "I have full respect!"
"It doesn't sound like it."
"I've already tried my best!"
The jazz didn't say anything more about him.
They walked up to the hibernation pods. Jazz stood slightly ahead. Sideswipe lagged half a step behind, realizing this wasn't the place for him to speak casually.
Jazz looked at the vector.
He said a lot on the battlefield.
Scheduling, reminders, jokes, sarcasm, and some nonsense to keep other machines from getting too tense.
But standing here, he calmed down.
"Kalis held the line."
He said, "The underground reactor is still there, and the Iron Fort criticality has been temporarily stabilized."
Sideswipe glanced at him, but Jazz didn't look back.
"We won the first time."
The jazz chuckled softly, a faint smile: "Sounds like a bit happier, doesn't it?"
Hengpao couldn't help but whisper, "It's not that I can't be happy."
The jazz man glanced at him slowly.
Hengpao paused for a moment, then immediately added, "We did win."
"Yes," the jazz said, "we did win."
He looked at the gravity vector inside the hibernation pod: "But I still don't like it."
Hengpao paused for a moment.
This was a little hard for him to understand.
He loved fighting, loved winning, and enjoyed the crisp feedback, the speed, the bursts of sparks, and the feeling of standing firm in the most dangerous positions when his twin swords sliced through gaps in the enemy's armor.
He admitted that he was very excited about the battle in Kalis.
An opponent like the Hun Tian Bao is the kind of opponent that deserves to be defeated.
Moreover, their first victory should be something to celebrate.
But the jazz said he didn't like it.
Sidearm's gaze fell on the hibernation pod.
She doesn't seem like the chief judge who, according to rumors, once separated the judicial center from the old order, nor does she resemble the name that appears in war reports and academic textbooks.
She was simply asleep, her body bearing the marks of repair, with an old nameplate hanging around her neck whose meaning he couldn't decipher.
"Will she know we won when she wakes up?" Hengpao asked.
The jazz musician paused for a moment, then said, "There will be an opportunity to tell her."
"What if she doesn't like it?"
Looking at the bluish-green light, Jazz couldn't help but chuckle softly, "That means her brain modules are still normal."
Hengpao paused for a moment, then looked down at his twin swords.
There were still scorch marks on it that hadn't been completely cleaned off.
He suddenly remembered the broken bridge deck of Kalis, the overloaded reactor, the guards the medical team dragged out of the ruins, and the brief static on the channel when he was almost slammed into the ground by the leopard.
...It seems that winning alone can cover up everything else.
This sudden thought made him somewhat uncomfortable.
Hengpao straightened up a bit: "I've never seen her before."
"I've never seen many of these machines before," the jazz said.
"But they all say she's amazing."
That's true.
Sideswipe looked at the gravitational vector inside the hibernation pod: "She seems very quiet."
After a while, the gentleman said, "When she's awake, she's often very quiet."
Hengpao turned to look at him.
Jazz seemed to remember something, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
"The difference is that when she became quiet back then, it usually meant that something bad was about to happen."
Sideswipe laughed and moved a little closer to the hibernation pod.
The jazz glanced down at the silver-gray nameplate on the side of her neck. He didn't know its significance, but he didn't ask.
The war had already forced too many things to be laid bare, and he didn't want to ask about anything else.
The jazz officer looked away: "We have to go."
Hengpao was a little surprised: "So fast?"
"You still need to treat your wounds, review the battle, and write the battle report."
Hengpao's expression stiffened for a moment: "I still need to write a report?"
Jazz finally showed a hint of genuine joy.
"Welcome to the aftermath of victory."
Sideswipe looked to be in even more pain than when facing Brutalizer.
Before they turned to leave, Hengpao looked back one last time.
"I'll win even faster next time," he said.
The jazz paused, as if he wanted to say something like, "Don't oversimplify things; war doesn't crash less just because you're fast; sometimes winning faster just means you see the next battle sooner."
But in the end he didn't say anything.
Young soldiers must first believe that their speed, sword, and courage can solve many problems; otherwise, they will never be able to enter the first battle.
Jazz raised his hand and patted Sideswipe's shoulder armor.
"Finish the report first."
Hengpao turned back in anguish.
"Do you really have to bring this up now?"
"right."
The two machines left the hibernation chamber.
Outside Crystal City, reports of Kalis's first victory were repeatedly broadcast on the public channel.