Chapter 153: "Traditional Tactics"

Behind Luke, watching him intently squatting among a cluster of meteorites with an air of intending to wait until the end of time, Rötus nagged, "Luke, do your parents know how sleazy you are? Is this really okay? This doesn't seem like your style."

"Shut up." Luke waved backward without looking back.

"You're ruining the reputation of the Apostles..." Rötus grumbled.

"Shut up." Luke suddenly perked up with excitement, saying, "Here it comes, here it comes! Get ready, everyone."

"Received!"

"Received..."

The responses from the Four Roses came through the channel one after another.

At this point, the Four Roses were also piloting their Tempest-Customs, hiding separately within a cluster of meteorites not far away, forming a pincer formation with the Warlord piloted by Luke.

A Chitauri transport ship gradually came into everyone's view.

This Chitauri transport ship clearly had no idea that they had fallen into an ambush.

Right at that moment, Luke suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs, operating the Warlord to leap out from behind a massive meteorite: "As long as I am alive, the turret stands!"

At the same time...

Anaka: "Charge!"

Amitan: "Our cause is just!"

Rozana: "Justice will prevail!"

Obia: "Ah! Woo-ah—woo-ah—woo-ah—woo-ah!"

The Four Roses also eagerly piloted their respective Tempest-Customs, scrambling out of their hiding spots.

Caught in the crossfire of the group, this Chitauri transport ship didn't even have a chance to accelerate and escape before its engines were frantically dismantled piece by piece by the bunch of them within the blink of an eye, and the Chitauri inside were tossed out into space.

History proved that Chitauri without protective gear could not survive the space environment either. Those few pitiful Chitauri never dreamed they would meet their demise simply while piloting a transport ship like any other day.

Shortly after, one large and four small weasels dragged this fresh, plump chicken back to their nest.

Luke, together with the Four Roses, began skillfully tallying the spoils of war, dismantling valuable equipment and components from the transport ship and installing them all onto the damaged Warlord.

The remaining resources that weren't temporarily needed were all stashed away by Luke into his storage space for future use.

The materials obtained this time were enough to repair the four main engines of the Warlord, completely restoring the Warlord to full combat capability.

Two hours later.

The Warlord, accompanied by the Four Roses, concealed itself once again within the cluster of meteorites...

"I'm saying, Luke, everything is repaired, why come back for more? Your values are starting to skew. Our target should be those much stronger opponents! The glory of the Apostles must not be tarnished..." Rötus urged with dissatisfaction.

"Shut up." Wielding the Shadowless Sword, Luke's small face was glowing radiantly, his eyes shining as he shouted, "Long live Demacia! Follow me!"

Just like that, Luke and his crew ambushed four Chitauri transport ships in succession, finally drawing the attention of the Chitauri.

When the Chitauri appeared once again, what came was a large-scale search party.

"Hehe, a big fish is here."

After several rounds of ambushes, Luke was no longer satisfied with just hijacking defenseless transport ships. Aside from raw materials, those transport ships offered nothing else of value.

Therefore, he set his sights on these Chitauri soldiers.

These Chitauri soldiers possessed an energy weapon that utilized advanced technology.

Limited by circumstances, building a few parts to repair a mecha was one thing, but more sophisticated items, such as weapons, were impossible for Luke to manufacture out in space.

Since he couldn't build them, he would just snatch them!

This had already become his signature traditional tactic.

"No guns, no cannons, the enemy provides for us..." Luke hummed a little tune, notifying the Four Roses in the channel to take their positions.

When this Chitauri search party cautiously entered the meteorite belt, they were immediately ambushed by Luke's team.

The newly repaired Warlord faced zero pressure dealing with these Chitauri mob units.

Not to mention, they had the Four Roses assisting from the flanks.

In just a few short minutes, this Chitauri search party was completely wiped out, leaving behind a few shuttles and a batch of energy weapons.

"Come, come, come, everyone pick and choose whatever you like! There will be weapons, and there will be ammunition. Since they kindly delivered them to us, let's not be polite at all." Luke generously began distributing the spoils.

The Four Roses chattered excitedly as they made their selections.

As assault troopers, Anaka and Obia only needed a rifle-class weapon each. The energy weapons used by these Chitauri suited them quite well.

Rozana was a shotgunner, skilled in mid-range fire support. Amitan was a grenadier, responsible for long-range area coverage. Since there were no weapons matching their specialties here yet, they had to make do with energy rifles for the time being.

Having acquired this batch of weapons and equipment, the combat effectiveness of the Four Roses increased by at least half. Luke now had the confidence to lead them to hijack even larger targets.

However, Luke decided to take things steady first, launching a few more ambushes to arm his team to the teeth before anything else.

Consequently, over the next two days, Luke led the Four Roses on a rampage of crimes throughout this meteorite belt.

The expanse of this meteorite belt was shockingly vast, seemingly thousands of kilometers in length, providing Luke and his crew with an exceptional environment for guerrilla warfare.

Over these past few days, the Chitauri noticeably stepped up their patrol intensity. Furthermore, the transport ships carrying parts and materials back and forth began to be accompanied by escort fleets.

Luke, who originally hadn't planned to attack transport ships anymore, took one look and immediately reclassified transport ships as prime targets without hesitation.

After several engagements, the cooperation between the Warlord and the four Tempests grew increasingly seamless; whatever they set their sights on within the meteorite belt had no hope of escaping.

As it turned out, this meteorite belt was seemingly impossible to bypass.

Luke only found out later that this was no mere meteorite belt at all, but rather the planetary ring of the nearby Chitauri planet, encircling the entire celestial body! Moreover, this place served as an important mining area for the Chitauri.

Luke was acting precisely like a weasel that had accidentally stumbled into a chicken coop, leading four little weasels to commit crimes right in the teeth of the storm, completely unaware that the outside world had been turned completely upside down because of them.

The two Chitauri motherships damaged in the nuclear explosion were in urgent need of resources for repairs, yet resource transport kept getting intercepted. Upon learning that this was the work of the escaped Earthlings, the enraged Chitauri leader continuously dispatched search parties to suppress the bandits.

However, the Chitauri severely underestimated the professional caliber of this hijacking squad.

Had they known that the ones playing hide-and-seek and waging guerrilla warfare against them were precisely the "Apostle" holding the highest threat level in their intelligence reports, this Chitauri leader would absolute never have been so careless.

Even so, upon learning that the mining area had also been attacked and large numbers of mining units had been eliminated by the Earthlings, the furious Chitauri leader still issued orders to dispatch a massive clearance force, even deploying a Leviathan.

Luke and the Four Roses had stumbled upon the Chitauri mining area entirely by accident.

Upon seeing those unattended, fully automated mining machines working diligently, Luke's mind instantly became active.