Chapter 379: The Truth is Revealed!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
Having activated her mecha, Ling Lan very quickly contacted the rest of the team and made the subsequent arrangements. Ling Lan felt that continuing to remain here was much too dangerous. After all, two batches of enemies had fallen here — if another batch of enemies came, they definitely would not be just one lone ace mecha squad anymore. It was very likely that two, or even three or more, ace mecha squads would arrive.
Ling Lan had the confidence to go up against one ace operator, but Ling Lan was unsure whether she could take an additional ace. Moreover, she was also not the only one here now — there were still the other members of her team to account for. Ling Lan needed to take responsibility for her team members' safety. After careful consideration, Ling Lan decided to retreat with her team and avoid the keenest edge of danger for the moment!
Meanwhile, at that moment, in the central command centre of the starship fleet in space, two battlefield reports had been delivered to the commander ...
"You're saying that there have been reports from both locations that Qiao Ting has appeared?" The commander looked at the two locations on the map which were over ten kilometres apart and could not help but frown.
"Yes, Commander. On one end is news sent by team-M — preliminary estimation is that the elite ace Tang Yu is bringing Qiao Ting along with him. It's only the two of them, and at present, it has been confirmed that one of the mecha is an ace trainee mecha of the military academy ... meanwhile, the other report came from the dormitory district. Our mecha troops there have discovered a batch of military academy trainee mecha among the ground forces. A majority of those trainee mecha are special-class mecha, with just one of them being an ace mecha ..." The adjutant had pored over the information in detail the moment he had received the reports. Upon the commander's questioning, he quickly spoke up to explain.
"Actually having two ace trainee mecha appear at the same time ... could it be that two ace operators have emerged within the First Men's Military Academy?" The commander-in-chief stared at the two reports, his forehead scrunched up even tighter.
"Unclear. The Huaxians have always been wily. This could just be a smokescreen, a ploy by the instructors, or there really could be two students who have managed to advance and the school had intentionally suppressed this information." The adjutant shared his speculations with the commander.
"It looks like we can't pass on either of these two points. Regardless whether it is true or false, these trainee mecha need to be completely wiped out." A cold glint flashed through the commander's eyes; he had not forgotten the ultimate goal of this operation.
"That location of team-M, since there are two people, send two ace mecha squads over ..." The commander first gave this order.
Thinking of something, the adjutant quickly notified commander, "Sir, before I reported to you, I had already sent an ace mecha team over."
"So what's the current situation?" asked the commander with a raised brow.
The adjutant's expression was unsightly. "We still have not received any confirmed updates."
"How long has it been since the team was deployed?" The commander's face turned grim.
"It's already been 10 minutes." The adjutant too felt that things were not looking good for there to be no news after so long.
"It looks like they've probably met a bad end at that spot ..." the commander's eyes flashed. "It is very likely to be a trap ... but even if it's a trap, I still want this trap to become a conquest of ours. Send two more ace mecha squads to that location. We must completely eradicate the people lying in ambush there."
"Yes, Commander!" the adjutant replied immediately.
After issuing this order, the commander walked over to the battle map display, and the adjutant quickly hurried after him.
The commander peered intently at those spots marking the areas where the battle was most intense, and after a thoughtful pause he said, "The dormitory district ... is the area with the greatest resistance. The bulk of our forces as well as the forces of our allies are caught up here ... Adjutant Gare, is the battle still deadlocked?"
"Yes, Commander. The defending troops of planet Newline have already figured out our objective. They have placed all their martial forces at the dormitory district. Our previous few batches of mecha warriors suffered major casualties because the other side was ready for us. We've lost many people and are currently disadvantaged in terms of numbers. Although we've tried forcing our way through many times, the other side has been able to resist tenaciously." The adjutant reported the situation at the dormitory district to the commander.
The commander-in-chief once again picked up the reports the staff officer had brought him earlier and his brow scrunched up once more. "The ground artillery is too dense and our landing points are too concentrated ... can't we disperse our landing points further away?"
The adjutant chuckled wryly and said, "The only safe landing point on planet Newline is this spot at the First Men's Military Academy. The other undeveloped primal areas are all classified as treacherous terrain. This was specially highlighted during our briefing with the intelligence bureau. Our landing points must not exceed the range of the First Men's Military Academy at all costs. Otherwise, the lives of our warriors will be in danger ..."
Before the commander could say anything, the adjutant added, "The facts prove that the information given to us by the intelligence bureau is accurate. One of our allied mecha squads made an impromptu alteration to their landing point to avoid the dense cannonfire, going beyond the safe areas we had marked out ... those people are still MIA 1 now. After repeated consideration and deduction, the final conclusion we arrived at is that the entire team was annihilated ..."
The adjutant's words made the commander's facial expression change; the adjutant's expression had twisted as well as he said all this. He paused for a beat and then continued, "Just now, I have carefully studied the briefing file sent by the intelligence bureau again and found that those areas are all forbidden grounds. They are left there by the Huaxians for operators of ace level and above to attempt a breakthrough."
The commander-in-chief's gaze narrowed in interest. "So the Huaxians have found such a great spot! No wonder they would often produce top-class operators after a stretch of time. Moreover, with these forbidden grounds protecting the planet, with only the First Men's Military Academy situated here, this is a great way of saving labour and resources while providing peace of mind."
With regards to the Huaxians' great luck, the commander-in-chief was truly filled with envy-jealousy-hate! After a few seconds of silent contemplation, he finally made a decision. "Adjutant Gare, notify those below. Mobilize the ultimate tool."
The adjutant raised his head, gaping with disbelief. The ultimate tool was something that was only allowed to be mobilised when the fleet was facing total annihilation. He did not expect the commander-in-chief to violate this principle, actually ordering its mobilization while they were still attacking. If news of this ever leaked to the outside world, the commander-in-chief would definitely receive censure from all sides, and may even be court-martialled.
"Time is of the essence. Do not forget what our primary objective is." The commander-in-chief was not at all surprised by his adjutant's reaction. If possible, he too did not want to mobilise this ultimate plan. However, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry 2 — the sneak attack they had thought foolproof ended up being discovered by the ground forces of the enemy, resulting in mass casualties on their end, pushing the entire battle into a deadlock.
The commander-in-chief knew very well that the longer the battle dragged on, the more disadvantageous it would become for them. At present, their satellite signal jamming technology could only hold out for four hours. As soon as the interference ended, they would be facing enemy reinforcements on all sides ...
In the surrounding star space, the commander-in-chief knew that there were four large Huaxian fleets prowling about. They were only able to cause trouble here for so long because the fleets did not know that planet Newline had been invaded. Once the interference time ended, the ground forces would be able to connect to their satellites again and transmit a distress signal. Those four fleets would definitely rush here at top speed to provide assistance. At that time, they would have to pay a heavy toll to escape, having no choice but to cut a bloody path through the enemies. And this was something the commander did not wish to see.
"Also, I've found out that those allied forces outside have already begun to distrust us." A trace of frustration flashed through the commander-in-chief's eyes. "In order to salvage the situation and appease them, we need to do something impactful to let them know that everything is still within our control!" Besides, he was not at all planning to return fruitless. He was a staunch champion of the hegemony of the Empire ... even if he would be court-martialled, he still wanted to complete this mission for the empire.
The adjutant became very serious in reaction to the commander-in-chief's words. He too knew that those words spoken by the allied forces outside were indeed not very pleasing to the ear, some seeming to even suspect that the empire was purposefully using the allied troops as sacrificial pawns. The commander-in-chief had chosen this drastic step in large part to shake off this bad name.
Coming to terms with the commander's decision, the adjutant quickly stood to attention and accepted the order. "Yes, Sir! I'll immediately notify those below!"
The commander-in-chief waved a hand, gaze shadowed as he looked down at the verdant planet below. He had already revealed all his cards — he hoped that this time things would turn out to his satisfaction.
Subsequently, order after order was sent out from the command centre. Countless starships once again deployed countless mecha troops — among them was the secret weapon which the commander-in-chief had called the ultimate tool ...
In the command centre of the ground forces, when the commander there received reports of more enemy mecha descending from space, his expression changed drastically, "Issue the command. Hold on no matter what." He tore his army cap from his head in a pique. The back of his crisp-pressed military uniform was already soaked with sweat — it was clear to see that the strategic planning over this period of time had already wrung him out mentally.
"Are we still unable to contact the fleets at the other sectors?" Watching his orders being conveyed one by one down the line by the adjutant staff officer by his side, he could not help but look towards the soldier in charge of communications who had not stopped trying to establish contact with the other fleets.
"We can't send any signals out. We can only passively receive signals from the satellite." The comms soldier was in a similar state as the commander. The anxiety and stress over this period of time had also caused his uniform to be soaked through with sweat.
"It looks like the other is using a signal jammer. The only lucky thing is that they only managed to jam outgoing signals and not shut us down completely." The commander had actually come to this conclusion a long time ago, but he had just been holding on to that last bit of hope, unwilling to resign himself to the situation. At the thought of the opponent's jamming technology being just that bit stronger ... the already sweat-soaked military uniform was saturated even more with a new torrent of sweat from the resulting fear. The commander was well aware that if that had been the case, they would certainly be deader than dead right now, to say nothing of putting up any resistance and counterattacking.
"Commander, the latest news from the frontlines say that this batch of mecha are mostly ace mecha and special-class mecha." Without waiting for the commander to finish being thankful, the news his subordinate brought made the commander's heart sink.
The commander knew very well that they had only been able to hold out for so long because the first few batches of enemy mecha invading from the skies were largely intermediate mecha and advanced mecha, with only the rare few ace mecha scattered among them ...
"It looks like the enemy has pulled out all the stops now." The commander clenched his teeth and ordered, "Let the special-class mecha task force holding the fort — all the mecha of special-class and above — engage the enemy in battle."
He had way too few ace operators on hand ... now, he could only rely on special-class operators to use their lives to fend off the enemy. Hopefully, they would not have to wait till all their forces were wiped out for the reinforcements to arrive. A glimmer of pain passed through the commander's eyes. In order to protect those students behind them, he had no choice but to make this painful decision.