The piercing alarm from the electronic siren jolted Wang Ye awake.
Before his eyes even opened, his body reflexively sprung up from the flat bed, with Li Suyuan from the bunk above already flipping out of bed.
Turning back, he slapped Wang Ye’s forehead and said, "Yezi, snap to it! Red light! This is not a drill!"
Wang Ye shook his head, grabbed a military green short-sleeved shirt, and quickly followed the crowd rushing out of the barracks.
It was 2 a.m., and under the moonlight, hordes of ground assault soldiers were doing the sa, pouring out of their barracks to assemble. In the distance, the mountains were indistinct in the pitch-black night, while a dozen military troop carriers roared out from the armory’s large iron gates, driving toward the parade ground.
What’s going on?
Wang Ye was full of question marks, glancing at his comrades around him. Most of them also had looks of confusion, yet they still lined up quickly and quietly, with no one asking questions.
"Assembly! Assembly! There’s a situation in Fengrao City! Get ready with live ammo in 20 minutes, put on your glasses to check the latest instructions! Quick, quick!!" The commander-in-chief shouted from atop the command armor vehicle, gaphone in hand.
Everyone donned their AR glasses, and in their field of view, each person had their own action route and target nodes, as well as suggestions for weapon and ammunition acquisition.
In Wang Ye’s view, four pieces of equipnt were listed: a QBZ2099 light machine gun, a combat engineer’s axe, thermal marking grenades, and a battlefield dical kit.
He imdiately followed the orange route map to Armory 22, where the large iron doors were already open, with hundreds of others gathered to collect weapons.
"Quick, quick, quick!!!" The armory manager urged.
Soldiers who had already received their weapon boxes and ammunition ran swiftly to the equipnt warehouse to change into their combat gear.
Wang Ye was a bit flustered but managed to finish getting ready within the ti limit. His bulletproof vest had two ammo boxes attached, he carried a dical kit hooked to an electronic pacemaker, and including the helt and weapons, he was weighed down with more than 120 pounds.
When he returned to the parade ground for assembly, he saw Li Suyuan clanking over in Xingtian Power Armor, the rotary cannon on his right arm whirring as it spun, the extendable sword partly concealed in his left arm, and the streamlined propulsion engine’s exhaust fan blades behind him snapping and popping. Wang Ye was dying of envy.
A portion of the soldiers had already boarded the troop carriers and set off imdiately. Li Suyuan and a bunch of Iron n were waiting for the heavy-lift helicopters, while Wang Ye and the remaining hundred-plus n were assigned to thirty-two ard helicopters for high-altitude fire support, and to be air-dropped to the ground as the situation warranted.
The HUD in his helt visor still didn’t show any mission information, only marking out the terrain map and the target location. This left him sowhat puzzled.
He looked over at the Xingtian cha Team from a hundred ters away. Standing at the end of the line, Li Suyuan extended his left arm and gave him a thumbs up.
The two n were on different communication channels, so they couldn’t establish audio contact.
Two minutes later, Wang Ye heard the sound of helicopters, and at the sa ti, the HUD finally went online with the life signs indicator for all his teammates, totaling 800 people.
The helicopters gradually landed, and Wang Ye and two teammates were grouped together, assigned to Helicopter Team 3.
They hurried aboard, one person responsible for reloading, two manning the side machine guns. The helicopter took off before they could even get settled.
Watching the Xingtian cha Team on the ground shrink away, with the base camp growing distant, he finally dared to ask, "What’s going on?"
"I don’t know!" replied his companion at the side.
"Are you from Fengrao?" another teammate asked.
Wang Ye humd an affirmation.
"This could be a big problem," the teammate shook his head.
"What do you an?" Wang Ye asked.
"Look at the sequence," his teammate suggested.
Wang Ye checked the HUD again, tallying the total number of combatants at 800.
That’s not right...
He swiped his hand, exited the array view, and returned to the sequence tab, where densely packed, differently colored array blocks appeared before his eyes...
He sucked in a breath of cold air. This operation mobilized over 20,000 troops from around Fengrao City! Not just the army, but also the air force... armored brigade... rocket army...
"Shit... have we been invaded?" Wang Ye asked.
No sooner had he spoken than a series of piercing shrieks swept overhead. His HUD displayed friendly forces’ identifications, indicating that 18 heavy fighters had just passed over them.
"Look! A mission’s coming! There’s trouble at the Lingxiao Palace," his teammate said.
"Got it, got it!" Wang Ye quickly responded.
The brief mission brief appeared on the HUD: "An unknown giant creature has appeared at the Lingxiao Palace, suspected to be one of the Heavenly Falling Objects. Ensure it does not cause greater damage to Fengrao City! Make every effort to ensure the safety of the Yin people!"
"Giant creature?!" Another teammate laughed.
"Why is it at the Lingxiao Palace?" Wang Ye asked.
"That thing isn’t going to consult with you before crashing down," his teammate replied.
Both were eager to try; for the military, a large target size wasn’t sothing to fear, it was quite the opposite—a massive target. Urban warfare and entrenched battles were a foot soldier’s nightmare.
Years of training were finally going to pay off. Although the opponent wasn’t human and all he had to do was sit in a helicopter and operate a machine gun, this was Wang Ye’s first engagent in real combat. His adrenaline surged with excitent, his drowsiness vanished, and his muscles tensed up. He felt like he was back on the night he’d run to the hotel with a fruit knife to slash four scumbags. Years had gone by in a flash, and now in his twenties, the battle at hand made his blood boil even more.
"The Emperor is testing us!! Accomplish the mission!!!" ca the commander’s voice over the communication channel.
Following that, thousands of soldiers shouted in unison, "Accomplish the mission!!!!"
Wang Ye joined in the thunderous chant, which seed to imbue him with strength.
minutes later. Fengrao City was already in sight, the dark horizon revealing the vague outline of the enormous tripod-like structure. Darkness pooled at its base, but moving upward, there were more lights, with the Lingxiao Palace at the top twinkling with resplendent golden light.
At the sa ti, Wang Ye noticed a imnse shadow clinging to the top of the tripod.
"Why aren’t the fighter jets opening fire now that they’re in position?" soone questioned over the communication channel at that mont.
At that mont, parts of the line were blocked, and Wang Ye and his team could no longer hear the conversation.
He looked back at his teammates, who also shook their heads.
"What’s going on?"
"Why isn’t there an attack?"
"Do we have any intel on that thing?!"
The infantry ranks were filled with various inquiries.
"The armor and rocket army haven’t opened fire either."
Soone suddenly said.
"Why?! The target is clearly visible, could it be that the Emperor hasn’t evacuated?" soone asked.
A teammate muted the microphone and muttered softly, "Isn’t the Emperor a dragon? She must have flown away by now, right?"
Wang Ye slapped his teammate, signaling him to watch his words.
All the military forces were in position, waiting on the spot, motionless. The air force then transmitted a ssage, "We have 9 more minutes before we have to return for refueling."
Soone urged, "Who gave the order? Who called us to support?!"
At that mont, the full spectrum was unrestricted, and the supre commander spoke, "It was an order from the Emperor!"
"Requesting the Emperor’s authorization to open fire!" the commander of the ground rocket forces pleaded urgently.
"That thing IS the Emperor!! Go ask her yourself!" the commander cursed angrily.
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