110: Chapter 110 Left Arm Ruined, Ram's Horn Broken! Ice Thorn Burns the Tank Without Stopping

Polaris sped along the bottom side of the Ice Thorn Lv.4 Main City at eighty-five kilometers per hour.

The distance shortened from eight hundred meters to five hundred meters.

Three hundred meters.

The main tracks at the bottom of the Ice Thorn main city appeared on the radar screen as a thick heat source band over three meters wide.

Each track plate weighed half a ton.

The connecting pin was the core component connecting two track plates—an eight-centimeter diameter high-strength alloy steel cylinder, embedded in the pinhole on the side of the track plate, and locked by a cotter pin.

Eight centimeters.

The maximum gripping width of the Mechanical Arm's hydraulic claw when opened was twelve centimeters.

That's enough.

When Polaris passed the side of the Ice Thorn main city at eighty-five kilometers per hour, the Mechanical Arm had an effective operating window of less than a few seconds.

It had to complete extension, gripping, pulling, and shearing in a short time.

"System, can the automatic target locking assistance system be applied to Mechanical Arm operations?"

[The automatic target locking assistance system currently supports weapon system aiming compensation. Mechanical Arm control belongs to non-weapon systems; locking assistance can provide target marking and trajectory prediction functions, but cannot achieve automated control. The final execution accuracy depends on the host's manual operation.]

Lu Chen's fingers rested on the Mechanical Arm control lever.

"Lin Wan, it's going to be very bumpy in the back."

"I'm holding onto the pillar."

He maintained the vehicle speed at eighty-five, aiming the front of the vehicle at the left main track assembly at the bottom of the Ice Thorn main city.

The radar screen marked the position of the connecting pins.

The spacing between each connecting pin was about forty centimeters.

He needed to reach the Mechanical Arm into the gap between the track plates at the moment of passing, grab the connecting pin, and use the vehicle's forward inertia to pull the connecting pin out of the pinhole.

The inertial pulling force at eighty-five kilometers per hour was enough to pull out the connecting pin.

The prerequisite was that the Mechanical Arm's claw could firmly bite onto that eight-centimeter-thick steel cylinder in a short time.

Distance two hundred meters.

One hundred fifty meters.

The anti-aircraft guns at the bottom of Ice Thorn were tracking.

Bang bang bang bang!

Four small-caliber shells hit the front armor and all ricocheted off.

One hundred meters.

The Mechanical Arm ejected.

The left Mechanical Arm extended at maximum speed to its eight-meter limit radius, and the hydraulic claw opened to its maximum width.

The automatic target locking assistance system marked the position of the nearest connecting pin on the screen and provided a trajectory prediction line.

Fifty meters.

Thirty meters.

The bottom wall of the Ice Thorn main city flashed past the cockpit side window.

The three-meter-thick main tracks rolled over the ice under the Mechanical Arm, emitting a deafening roar.

Lu Chen's fingers made a subtle adjustment on the control lever.

The Mechanical Arm's claw plunged into the gap between the two track plates.

It caught it.

The claw bit onto the exposed end of the connecting pin.

The hydraulic system locked fully.

Polaris surged forward at eighty-five kilometers per hour.

The Mechanical Arm was straightened out.

The hydraulic motor emitted a sharp overload whine.

The connecting pin was pulled two centimeters within the pinhole.

Two centimeters, only two centimeters pulled out.

The main tracks of the Ice Thorn Lv.4 Main City were too thick, the connecting pin's fit precision was extremely high, and the friction on the inner wall of the pinhole far exceeded the Mechanical Arm's pulling limit.

The eight-meter radius Mechanical Arm reached its structural limit under the drag of eighty-five kilometers per hour.

The second joint of the left Mechanical Arm emitted a crisp sound of metal breaking.

A hydraulic line burst.

The claw was forced to release.

When the Mechanical Arm snapped back, the hydraulic fluid from the second joint sprayed into a black mist in the minus forty-degree air.

"Left arm hydraulic line number two ruptured." Lu Chen's voice sounded.

The left Mechanical Arm lost forty percent of its gripping force.

It could still move, but precise operations were no longer possible.

The connecting pin was only pulled out two centimeters and did not fall off.

"City Lord! The Mechanical Arm is damaged!" Lin Wan's voice came from the planting area.

"Left arm, second joint, a hydraulic line broke."

"Can it be repaired?"

"It can be repaired after the battle."

Lu Chen glanced at the radar screen.

The speed of the Ice Thorn Lv.4 Main City dropped from twenty-two to twenty-one.

It dropped by one kilometer.

Although the connecting pin was not pulled out, the two-centimeter loosening caused a visible shift in that track plate during rotation.

The shift caused additional friction.

A one-kilometer-per-hour drop.

Not enough.

Far from enough.

"The right arm is still usable."

Lu Chen swung Polaris from the left side of the Ice Thorn main city to the right side.

He went around to the bottom of the right side.

The drive shaft protective cover on the right side still bore the twelve-centimeter dent from the last collision.

The metallic screeching of the drive shaft rubbing against the dented steel plate could be heard from three hundred meters away.

"One more time."

Polaris charged toward the right main track at eighty-five kilometers per hour.

The right Mechanical Arm ejected.

The claw plunged into the gap between the track plates.

It grabbed the connecting pin.

Hydraulic lock.

Pulling.

The connecting pin was pulled out three centimeters.

Three centimeters, but it still didn't come out.

The second joint of the right Mechanical Arm also emitted an overloaded metallic groan.

Lu Chen released the claw one-tenth of a second before the overload alarm sounded.

The right arm snapped back.

The hydraulic lines were intact, but the reduction gear set in the second joint showed tooth surface wear.

The right arm was still usable, but its lifespan for continuous high-load operations was shortening.

"Battalion Commander Zhao."

Zhao Tiezhu's voice came through the communicator, with the full-speed roar of the iron wall engine in the background.

"Here!"

"Have you retreated to the rear of The City-State?"

"I'm here! Just circled around!"

"Listen, my Mechanical Arm cannot break the Lv.4 track connecting pins."

The other end of the communicator was silent for two seconds.

"Then what are you going to do?"

"Ram it again."

"Your ram has cracks! If you ram it again, the ram might just break off!"

"It's better if it breaks."

Zhao Tiezhu's rough voice faltered for a beat.

"What do you mean it's better if it breaks?"

"The broken ram fragments will get stuck in the gap between the drive shaft and the protective cover."

Lu Chen turned the steering wheel to the right, aiming the front of Polaris at the drive shaft protective cover at the bottom right of Ice Thorn that had been dented twelve centimeters.

"Fragments are harder to clear than an intact ram."

"Because the fragments will embed into the gear gaps."

"The gear-jamming effect."

Zhao Tiezhu sucked in a breath of cold air.

"You're deliberately letting the ram break into its drive shaft?"

"Yes."

Distance five hundred meters.

Four hundred meters.

Engine boost maxed out.

Eighty-five kilometers per hour.

The crack on the ram was clearly visible under the illumination of the headlights.

A winding, extremely fine dark line on the homogeneous manganese steel.

The next impact would expand this crack.

The ram was at risk of breaking.

The broken fragments would remain in the gap between that dented protective cover and the drive shaft.

Three hundred meters.

Two hundred meters.

"Lin Wan! Hold on tight!"

"Holding on!"

One hundred meters.

Fifty meters.

Impact.

Crack!

This sound was three times louder than the last one.

The entire Polaris vehicle pitched forward, and the front suspension shock springs were compressed to their limit.

All loose items in the cabin sprang up simultaneously.

An iron pot jumped off the floor and hit the frame of the cold storage unit.

The lid of the nutrient solution barrel popped open.

The crack on the ram expanded from an extremely fine width to the width of a finger.

But it didn't break.

The toughness of the homogeneous manganese steel exceeded his expectations.

The crack expanded, but the main structure of the ram remained.

And the dent in the protective cover on the opposite side changed from twelve centimeters to eighteen centimeters.

The eighteen-centimeter concave steel plate was pressed tightly against the casing of the drive shaft.

The metallic rubbing sound turned from sharp to a hoarse grinding sound.

The drive shaft had to grind over that dented steel plate with every rotation.

The speed of Ice Thorn dropped from twenty-one to nineteen.

Nineteen, another two kilometers dropped, but it still wasn't enough.

Nineteen kilometers per hour against The City-State's speed of ten.

Relative speed nine.

The power of six tons of explosives in a head-on collision at a speed of nine.

It was still enough to blow through the walls of the Black Rock City-State.

Lu Chen stared at the radar screen.

The light cluster of Ice Thorn continued to advance.

Distance to the front of the Black Rock City-State: four kilometers.

Advancing four kilometers at nineteen kilometers per hour: twelve minutes.

"City Lord Lin Xiao, Ice Thorn's current speed is nineteen, four kilometers from your front, impact in twelve minutes."

"I know! The City-State is accelerating! The speed has already reached twelve!"

Speed nineteen against twelve.

Relative speed seven.

Eighteen lower than the initial twenty-five.

But the head-on detonation of six tons of explosives at any speed is not something relative speed can offset.

Speed only determines the magnitude of the impact's kinetic energy.

The power of the explosives has nothing to do with speed.

Six tons of explosives is six tons of explosives.

A voice came from the communicator.

Ice Thorn's voice.

"Lin Xiao, do you think you can survive just by slowing me down?"

"Even if I stop, the explosion radius of six tons of explosives can cover your entire city wall."

"Speed is just an added bonus."

"The explosives are the main event."

Lu Chen's fingers paused on the steering wheel for a beat.

Ice Thorn was right.

The explosive equivalent of six tons of industrial explosives was enough to destroy the outer layer of a Lv.4 city wall at any distance.

Reducing speed could only lower the impact kinetic energy, but could not change the power of the explosives themselves.

A new data point jumped out on the radar screen.

The heat source intensity of the Ice Thorn Lv.4 Main City soared three times in one second; that was the signal of an engine overload.

Ice Thorn pushed the engine to a limit power far exceeding safety restrictions.

The speed started climbing back up from nineteen.

Twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two.

He made up for all the deceleration caused by friction by overloading the engine.

"City Lord Lu!" Zhou Yuan's voice tore through the communicator.

"Ice Thorn's engine heat source has soared to the limit! It's operating in overload! Based on the heat source data, the engine output exceeds one hundred and thirty percent of its rated power!"

"It won't stop even after burning out the cylinders?" Zhao Tiezhu's rough voice revealed horror.

"He doesn't care about the engine anymore."

Lu Chen's speaking pace didn't change.

"He doesn't plan on coming out of this collision alive."