Counterfeit Hero

Chapter 437: Volume 5 Chapter 43 Prelude

”...I heard that the Southeast Second Expeditionary Army fleet of the Fei Alliance has been hanging around Mezrich?” In the smoking area outside the Electronic Warfare Department building, a short Lieutenant harshly threw his cigarette butt on the ground and stomped it out with his foot.

”Hanging around?” A Major Staff standing next to the Lieutenant exhaled smoke and glanced at him sideways, ”If it were that simple, it would be great. Our two fleets have already had contact with them!”

”Oh?” The Lieutenant’s eyes widened, and he asked urgently, ”What happened, did we start fighting?”

”Not exactly. We can’t afford to provoke Feiyang’s battleships, so it was just a standoff, and we withdrew voluntarily.” The Major Staff’s cigarette flared under the dim light of the lobby, the swirling smoke shrouding his somewhat worried face, ”I’m afraid they’re up to no good. Intelligence shows they’ve already made contact with Gordon, and with the Freedom Front involved, our situation is increasingly difficult.”

”Who told us we have no backing at either end!” The Lieutenant sneered indignantly, ”Desic and Reinhardt are in cahoots, and even Gordon has hooked up with the Fei Alliance. Look at us, over twenty Armored Divisions and nearly a hundred Infantry Divisions, all seasoned by battles. Unexpectedly, now back in Gazalin, we can’t even maintain supply lines. How can we fight like this? Our group’s Mecha has already experienced energy supply issues. They only sent a little yesterday, which isn’t even enough for routine defense!”

”Let’s not just talk about our group...” The Major Staff snorted coldly, ”Even a few main divisions are currently not receiving proper logistical supplies. Just think about it, with the chaos those guys are creating in the rear and the consumption at the front line, relying solely on the resources from the control zone, how can we possibly sustain ourselves? Let’s wait a few days and see how things are developing at the back.”

”Even if supplies are down, why stop our group?” The Lieutenant was a bit frantic, ”Our 226th Division was pulled back from Lucerne, and after re-merging, there’s only our group left. Once we leave the Tanville Battlefield heading east, the Chita Town we’re stationed in is the first gate to the Migratory Plain! If we’re wiped out, they can directly advance to Fulan Fortress!”

”Tell that to those nobles!” The Major Staff didn’t even lift his eyelids, speaking indifferently, ”Besides Stephen, how many of those nobles understand warfare? Those who understand are all on the other side.”

”At this rate, we’ll be doomed sooner or later.” The Lieutenant spat a mouthful, lit another cigarette, ”But I’ve heard there’s some communication going on with the Binart Empire, who knows if anything will come of it.”

”Does the Western Alliance have any good options?” The Major Staff rolled his eyes, ”Do you think the Desic Empire would support Reinhardt without Binart’s consent? Back then, if Stephen hadn’t bowed to the Fei Alliance, would we have come back? Having betrayed once, and now going back, it’s like proactively jumping into their palm to be manipulated. If they want you to fight someone, you have to fight. But talking about replacing Reinhardt, huh, let’s just wait and see, harder days are still ahead!”

”These nobles haven’t had enough of playing those opportunistic games back home.” The Lieutenant said disdainfully, ”If they weren’t so ambitious, and had followed the Fei Alliance initially, Gordon wouldn’t have had his way now.”

”Not that ambitious?” The Major Staff glanced around and lowered his voice, ”Would someone without ambition launch a coup? Don’t forget, Your Majesty is still in their hands. With the cunning politicians of the Federation Countries, once the situation stabilizes, they release Your Majesty, who gets to be the Emperor? Stephen will inevitably confront the Fei Alliance sooner or later; even if he doesn’t want to, they won’t let him be Emperor, not with the Freedom Front still there! That’s Russell’s condition for joining Leray, otherwise, why work with the Leray people at all?”

”True...” The Lieutenant was about to continue when suddenly he saw a signalman rushing out of the Electronic Warfare Department, swiftly hopping into a flying car and heading towards the regiment’s headquarters! At the same time, chaos burst inside the building, with several electronic soldiers hurrying out.

”What happened?” The Major Staff grabbed a soldier, asking.

”Our communications, radar, electronic suppression, and jamming systems were suddenly destroyed by a powerful electronic attack!” The soldier, sweating profusely, trembled as he left this sentence, quickly ran outside.

”Instantly destroyed?” The Major and Lieutenant exchanged glances, their faces turning pale simultaneously. Everyone knew this was a precursor to an imminent attack. The shorter the time electronic systems were destroyed, the stronger the enemy was, and the fiercer the attack would be.

”Boom!”

Just as the two tossed their cigarette butts and got up to see what was happening, a deafening explosion resounded. In the distance, a mass of white light suddenly illuminated the night sky, with a gigantic mushroom cloud rolling and rising, followed by flames reaching towards the sky. The building of the Electronic Warfare Department trembled from the earth-shattering explosion, with its windows rattling.

And this was just the beginning! Moments later, countless explosions erupted amid the roars of anti-aircraft fire, the trails of interceptor missiles, and the piercing alarms, turning the entire Chita, in an instant, into a fiery hell!

From silence to chaos, from human world to hell, it all happened in a moment under a dense missile barrage!

Countless cruise missiles surfaced from the black night sky, swooping down with unstoppable momentum, turning into earth-shaking fireballs.

One camp after another, one building after another turned into ashes under the lightning strike. Flames rose up from everywhere, propelled by the wind, licking and raging, gradually converging into one mass. The unprepared 226th Division’s First Regiment suffered extremely severe blows in just the first wave of missile attacks.

Communications were suppressed, camps were destroyed, troops were scattered. A Mecha group whose branch SkyNet System was destroyed by fleet-level electronic attacks could not organize resistance under this deliberate ambush’s saturation attack.

Interceptors and air defense systems, which initially tried desperately to counter, lost command from SkyNet, rendering them ineffective. As the enemy attack coverage intensified, with more and more defense installations being precisely destroyed, the resistance grew increasingly feeble.

Minutes later, a dark swarm of fighter jets descended on Chita. They left only fifty fighters for precision strikes, while the rest continued to fly over Chita without pause, heading east.

Half an hour later, the first Feiyang Armored Division ghosted to the outskirts of Chita.

*************

”Pipi, have you discovered anything?”

Fatty lay in Logic’s new cockpit, gnawing on an apple, and asked indistinctly. Ever since they stole the Divine’s mechanical engineering diagrams, the harmony between Fatty and Little Kid skyrocketed, and their terms of endearment became syrupy sweet.

”No, Fatty.” Little Kid was never one to back down, dragging everyone into the awkwardness together!

Fatty, naturally thick-skinned, was actually content with such a nickname as Fatty, smacking his lips thoughtfully, he discarded the apple core, wiped his sleeve across the seat rail, and muttered to himself, ”Something’s not right.”

”What’s wrong?” Little Kid wondered. ”All SkyNet data shows that in the next 24 hours, the Reinhardt Group’s attacks on the Long Line Ridge Defense Line are just like before. SkyNet also hasn’t detected any signs of their large-scale assembly or mobilization.”

”That’s why I say you’re a little kid! Mechanical brain!” Fatty curled his lip and said, ”If it were normal, then at least that idiot would strengthen the attack for probing or seize this opportunity to expand their control area! For them to continue such lackluster attacks just means one thing, they have bigger ambitions!”

”Under my nose?” Little Kid, indulging in SkyNet with a godlike feeling, said fiercely, ”Lord Fart will slap him to death!”

Fatty sighed, what he worried about was not just Reinhardt, but the entire Western Alliance!

You know, in the Binart Empire, there’s another general. A war fox who ranks side by side with Hastings on the military strategist chart, who, at the age of fifteen, commanded battles, a shining star for nearly thirty years, Sobel! This man is almost every Fei Alliance soldier’s nightmare, an assassination target every Fei Alliance person would spare no effort to eliminate!

Since Hastings is concerned about the Leray Channel, how could such a cunning military strategist as Sobel allow the Southeast Expeditionary Army to enter the Little Pyrenees strongly? Moreover, opening the Leray Channel is originally a strategy of the Western Alliance, and its strategist could very well be Sobel himself.

Now, Desic’s Fifth Reinforcement Plan is in progress. Even facing the joint attack by Tatania and Puditok on their homeland Athena Star System, they continuously send forces to the Little Pyrenees. Isn’t there a shadow of Sobel behind this?

Even if Sobel doesn’t meddle in the Southeast Battle Zone command’s specific tactical implementations, with his capabilities, even a word pointing a direction weighs a ton! Does he really only send a United Fleet to reinforce the Desic Empire and have no other tricks?

The current cosmic warfare situation is like a chess game between Sobel and Hastings. Apart from the Southeast’s localized battles, elsewhere lies hidden deadly traps. This chess game is somewhat difficult for Fatty to understand. He suddenly found himself far behind in this aspect, not even catching a whiff of others’ line of thinking.

However, one thing is for sure, the enemy won’t launch an attack easily, but once they do, it will be with the momentum of a Thunderbolt crushing down like Mount Tai.

**********

From last night to today, I’ve laughed myself silly, rolling back and forth on the bed, couldn’t believe you guys are so awesome, almost made me eternal in climax.

Just have to confess: If I ever do something that lets you all down, may my little monster ignore me forever!

Writing for over 15 hours a day, preparing for May 10th, thank you again for supporting me like this.

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.Old friends, let’s stand firm until May 10th, votes summoned.

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.(To be continued, to know what happens next, please log on to www.qidian.com, more Chapters available, support the author, support legitimate reading!)