Chapter 553: The Whip of a Fiery Flame
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
After hearing the early-warning bell ring, all the people in the command module became spirited.
The first mate instantly charged at a pile of dense sound-transmission pipes in the command module. He opened a sound-transmission mouth that led to observation post at the top of the airship and roared, "What's happening?"
"There's a large-scale battle 20 km away from us in the 9 o'clock direction!"
"There's a large-scale battle 20 km away from us in the 9 o'clock direction!"
A loud voice drifted from the sound transmission pipes for twice. Until the first mate answered, "Copy that" did it stop.
In a split second, everybody turned around and looked at Zhang Tie. Airships such as the Idiots could choose to join such a ground combat or not. As a spontaneous 'folk armed force' heading for Selnes Theater of Operations, nobody forced them to do something. It only depended on the captain. Only when they arrived at the Selnes Theater of Operations could their action be restricted.
"Ring the battle alarm; prepare for attacking the ground. Turn around the airship, I will take a look down there!" Zhang Tie delivered his order immediately.
On the 3rd day after leaving Jinyun Country, the Idiots rung its battle alarm for the first time. Soon after that, everybody in the airship became busy out of excitement. After adjusting its angle flexibly, the huge triangular-shaped body of the fury-level airship accelerated its speed right away and flew towards the battlefield in the distance.
Zhang Tie adjusted the angle of the bird-view imaging lens in front of him and instantly captured the scene on the battlefield 20 km away——
A human troop was evacuating from a valley while the demonized puppets were chasing closely after them. A great number of women and kids were running towards the east in a flurried manner. That human army worked as the shield and the barrier for those women and kids. The human troop was safeguarding a bridge on the riverside and preventing demonized puppets from breaking through.
The two parties were fighting fiercely nearby the bridge. Zhang Tie found some people were trying to destroy the bridge so as to hold back the demonized puppets. However, that bridge's abutment was in the form of a steel frame, which could hardly be completely destroyed. At the same time, the human troop was forced back by demonized puppets step by step.
There were over 10,000 human soldiers and about 30,000-40,000 demonized puppets across the battlefield. Additionally, more and more demonized puppets were rushing out of the valley. In Zhang Tie's eyes, this was not a large-scale battle; however, it was extremely fierce. Especially when more and more demonized puppets rushed out of the valley, the human troop's situation became critical.
"You command the following battle. You can mobilize all the means in the airship and give a sharp blow to those demonized puppets. Destroy that bridge and let the human troop, the women and the kids leave out of there safely." Zhang Tie delivered an order to the first mate.
"Yes, sir!" the first mate replied loudly. Closely after that, he glanced at the clock in the command module before shouting loudly, "At 14:27, on April 7th, the airship encountered a battle. The first mate took over the battle command!"
To command the airship to join a ground combat required very senior commanding skills. One had to learn 3 years in regular military academy plus many years of practice before becoming a qualified airship commander. As Zhang Tie had not learned any airship commanding courses at the college or being taught in practice, it was indeed out of his ability to command the airship to join a battle.
Therefore, in such a case, Zhang Tie appointed the first mate who was an experienced airship commander. Zhang Tie would decide whether they would join the battle or not while the first mate would determine how to fight with the consent of all the crew members in the airship. After all, nobody would like to put their lives in the hand of an outsider.
At this moment, Zhang Tie's role was like that of the political commissar in the human troops before the Catastrophe. Actually, Zhang Tie's power was much greater than that of the political commissar. In other words, the first mate of the airship was more like a senior battle adviser.
"Altitude!" the first mate roared in the command module while the whole command module entered a tense battle state.
"2100..." a crew member standing in front of a lot of dashboards replied loudly at once.
"How long does it take us to be close to the target?"
"4'57''!" another voice shouted.
"Adjust the entrance angle; ground reference, the iron bridge on the river; entrance angle 0 degree, port the helm 20!"
The huge fury-level airship instantly inclined as its entrance angle was adjusted.
After a few seconds, the helmsman replied loudly, "Entrance angle adjustment completed..."
"Dive in 30 seconds; height 400..."
"Repeat, dive in 30 seconds; height 400..." the signal staff lightened the dive signal lamp as he shouted towards the sound transmission pipe in front of him.
After 30 seconds, everybody in the command module seized the fixed handrails beside them, including Zhang Tie. After that, the entire airship started to dive downwards towards the ground.
At this moment, Zhang Tie felt falling off from high buildings as he felt his blood boiling.
After almost 2 minutes, the airship gradually recovered its stability.
"Altitude 400..."
"Bomb compartment, prepare white phosphorous gel bombs, 3 in one group, unit density 4..."
The battle on the ground became clearer when Zhang Tie reached hundreds of meters in height. Some demonized puppets had already rushed over that bridge, forcing all the human soldiers to the other side of the bridge.
Even though at this moment, the human troop still had not noticed such a huge airship in the air. Until the huge body of the fury-level airship caused a wide area of shadow on the ground did many human soldiers raise their heads and glance at it.
The airship had just flown over the bridge...
The demonized puppets were crowding on the iron bridge.
"Release..." after the roar of the first mate, three black barrels dropped off the airship like how a hen laid. When they were over 20 m above the ground, the 3 black barrels sparkled. Closely after that, they all exploded, drawing a black fire line in the sky. The fire line slashed onto that bridge like a fire whip in the hand of the God. As a result, the entire bridge, along with the land on the riverside and the bridgehead started to burn immediately like a pot of boiling oil being lit.
All the demonized puppets on the bridge started to burn at once. Like numerous burning torches, the bridge started to burn, including its steel frame and the land at the bridgehead.
This whip was as long as about 100 m. It was like a flame hell which was hotter than 2000 degree Celsius.
The airship flew over the bridge and rushed into the valley from where the demonized puppets were constantly pouring out. At the sight of the crowded demonized puppets, Zhang Tie drew in a cold breath. There were already tens of thousands of demonized puppets outside the valley. However, there were at least 70,000 to 80,000 demonized puppets left in the valley. Like a swarm of locusts which wanted to rush out of the valley to engulf people, all the demonized puppets were uttering weird sound towards the Idiots airship in the air with bloody eyes and twisted, grim looks.
"Kill these b*stards!" Zhang Tie roared in the command module.
"Release..."
...
"Release..."
...
"Release..."
After throwing 7 groups of white phosphorous gel bombs, the entire valley started to blaze. So many demonized puppets were burned and started to wail. They wanted to die out the flames on themselves by rolling on the ground; however, they could hardly make that in such a narrow valley. Additionally, their fats and carbohydrates were burned. They just ran around which easily burned those weeds and shrubs in the valley. As a result, the entire valley was covered with rising flames.
Demonized puppets had super great vitality. Even though they were burned, they could not turn into ashes at once. Neither would they die at once; however, all the demonized puppets lost their fighting strength immediately. In such a high temperature, their eyes were destroyed at once.
The puppet worms occupied the brains of the demonized puppets. They had no feeling about the common physical trauma on demonized puppets; however, they had sharper sensitiveness about temperature than normal people. Therefore, they could not bear high temperature.
After losing their visual senses, the burning demonized puppets started to collided fiercely on the bridge and in the valley. Only after a few minutes, before their bodies turned into ashes, they had already fallen on the ground and died as their heads had been well cooked. Even though they had died, their bodies were still burning.
Many demonized puppets were forced to jump into the torrents by the high temperature and the flames. As a result, they were flushed away. It was hard to say how many of them could survive till the end.
The human troop on the other end of the bride were also forced back about 100 m. After killing those demonized puppets who had reached this end of the bridge, everyone cheered up at the sight of the airship coming back after making a circle in the air...
"Boom..." in the fierce flames, the steel frame turned soft. Some parts of it became liquefied iron together with its steel wires. The bridge then collapsed...
...