nycdaug Chapter 298 Battle Against Sea Beasts (Part 1)
Chapter 298 Battle Against Sea Beasts (Part 1)
Yunlan invited Lei Qingcheng into her all-terrain combat command vehicle. The vehicle was enormous, measuring 15 meters long, 3.5 meters wide, and 4 meters high, easily accommodating thirty to forty people. Inside, it was equipped with a medium-sized crystal communicator, a large electronic screen, a 3D sand table, and other military equipment, as well as parking air conditioning, an in-vehicle kitchen, and over thirty comfortable seats. Except for the windows, the entire vehicle was covered in thick super-alloy armor, powered by crystals, and equipped with advanced artificial intelligence for autonomous driving, requiring only one driver to provide a few commands.
Lei Qingcheng, along with her adjutant Jin Mengqi, Ge Wenhui, and others, were immediately amazed by the high-tech features inside the vehicle as soon as they boarded. Lei Qingcheng had already chatted briefly with Yun Lan and they were now acquainted. So, they got straight to the point and began to plan how to fight the sea monsters.
Wu Gang, commander of the 1st Division of the Dawn Army, explained to Yunlan and Lei Qingcheng next to the three-dimensional sand table: "Our allied forces, totaling more than 2 men, will deploy from east to west, with the main force in the west. A division from the Qianyun base in the north will attack from north to south and join us in the west. In this way, we will form a tight encirclement. Even if we cannot completely devour these tens of thousands of sea monsters, we can take advantage of the situation to drive them into the sea."
Chief of Staff Qian Guangming of the 1st Division continued, "According to the reconnaissance of the Dawn City Air Force and the analysis by the information support unit, we are facing 4 to 5 sea monsters, and their level is not low. So although the ratio of enemy to friendly forces is not very different, the sea monsters are huge, with high attack and high defense, so the battle will not be easy."
Then, Deputy Division Commander Hao Dahai had his staff transmit some photos taken by the Dawn City Air Force to the big screen via the crystal computer. He then said, "These marked areas are where sea monsters are relatively concentrated, and also where advanced sea monsters gather. There is a high possibility that the sea monsters' command system is located there. As long as we can destroy it, I believe the difficulty of this operation will be greatly reduced."
The high-ranking officers of the resistance, including Lei Qingcheng, exchanged bewildered glances, utterly astonished by the intelligence capabilities of Dawn City and the Dawn Army. If they possessed such superior intelligence gathering and processing abilities, their previous defeat would never have occurred. Last time, their resistance camp suffered heavy losses due to their failure to detect the sea monster attack in time; even Lei Qingcheng, a level 11 Awakened expert, could only lead her remaining troops to temporarily retreat to the Dawn Autonomous Region to seek some respite.
While the group was still holding a combat meeting, Du Fei, the commander of the 3rd Division of the Qianyun Base in charge of this joint operation and also a level 10 dual-elemental ability user, sent a video call via a crystal communicator. Du Fei said with a smile, "Deputy Commander Yun, Political Commissar Zheng, Division Commander Wu Gang, comrades, our troops from the Qianyun Base have begun to deploy according to the original plan. Once you reach your designated positions, we can launch a pincer attack from the north and south, completely defeating and even annihilating these sea monsters."
Yunlan nodded: "Okay, thank you for your full assistance. We will notify you immediately as soon as we reach our operational position." After a brief discussion of specific details, the call ended. Yunlan checked the time on the command vehicle and saw it was already 10:00 AM. The operation was expected to begin in less than an hour, so she immediately said, "Contact all units via the crystal communicator and immediately distribute instant rations while marching. I'll treat everyone to a good meal after the operation is over."
Upon receiving the message from Yunlan, the logistics units and various other units unloaded the boxed meals prepared by the Dawn City Logistics Department from their insulated trucks. Each meal consisted of a pound of mixed high-grade Dawn rice and regular rice, a fried egg, a serving of beast meat, and some vegetables, plus an apple for each person. While not lavish, the diet of each Dawn Army soldier was among the best in these bases. Yunlan not only distributed the meals to her own troops but also ordered that the resistance fighters receive a portion as well.
Then Yunlan issued her second order: to distribute Flame Fruits to every ability user participating in this battle—two for those at level 7 and below, and four for those at level 8 and above. Currently, Li Chenglong and Yunlan's spiritual energy space has a total of 60 Flame Trees planted in its natural area, producing 18,000 Flame Fruits each month. This is already the maximum production, as Li Chenglong has already exchanged all the Flame Trees from Lilith.
Lei Qingcheng's lips twitched slightly. Although she had long heard that the Dawn Army's logistical support was excellent, seeing it with her own eyes this time truly showed that seeing is believing. After the logistics department reported that the distribution was complete, Yun Lan took out the officers' boxed meals from the storage area of the spiritual energy space and distributed them to everyone in the combat command vehicle, including Lei Qingcheng and her six or seven resistance officers.
The officers' meals weren't much different from those of ordinary soldiers, except that they contained slightly more exotic beast meat and high-grade Dawn Rice. This was because, aside from clerical staff or exceptionally capable individuals, almost everyone serving as an officer in the Dawn Army was a superhuman. Superhumans needed to consume 1 kilogram of high-grade Dawn Rice daily, so eating more was essential for their combat readiness.
Lei Qingcheng and the others ate their boxed lunches in silence, seemingly lost in thought. Notably, Lei Qingcheng ate her meal in a secluded spot at the back of the vehicle. A little while later, Han Xiaoling began taking out Flame Fruits from her storage space and distributing them to everyone on the vehicle. The higher the level, the more Flame Fruits they received; those level 10 and above could receive either 6 Flame Fruits or a 150ml cup of Flame Fruit Wine.
Lei Qingcheng carefully put away the Flame Fruit that had been given to her and said gratefully, "Thank you for your gift, Miss Yunlan. Our resistance army will always be friends of the Dawn Army." Yunlan smiled and said, "It's nothing. We are all Chinese, and it's only right to help each other."
At 11:1 AM, the army arrived at its designated position and quickly deployed to prepare for battle. Twenty minutes later, the combined forces of the Dawn Army and the Resistance Army, along with a division from the Qianyun Base in the north, simultaneously began the battle.
The sea beasts are mainly the same shrimp and crab creatures that Dawn City encountered before, but their levels have greatly improved and their sizes are also larger. Looking around, Yunlan saw that although there weren't many sea beasts, each one was as big as the front of a large truck, and the largest one was even as big as a small building.
Yunlan commanded, "Long-range attack on the ability users! Two rocket battalions in the rear, prepare to attack!" Instantly, countless crystal beam cannons and ability users rained down on the distant gathering of sea beasts, crushing some of the lower-level beasts into mincemeat. Then, a large number of drones loaded with crystal bombs took off, flying overhead and dropping them. Under these circumstances, before the Dawn Army could even deploy a single soldier, several thousand sea beasts had been wiped out.