Counterfeit Hero

Chapter 1284: Chapter 45: Daybreak (Conclusion)

Looking at everything before her eyes, at the time flowing past on the console screens, thinking of the brutal battles in space, thinking of the vanguard Mecha Group locked in a death struggle with the enemy in the atmosphere, Su Fei’s heart had almost leapt into her throat.

”General!” In the din, a staff officer’s hoarse roar made everyone jump. They all turned to look and saw, in front of the central console, a Major with a face swollen scarlet, veins bulging, throwing aside the calm steadiness of a soldier as he suddenly shoved his chair back and leapt to his feet.

”A large-scale ground battle has been discovered south of Beiguan City!” the Major shouted, his voice torn. One hand flew across the keyboard, routing the signal coming from the front.

On the screen was the icon showing that the signal had not been connected.

Time seemed to freeze completely at that moment; everyone was stunned by the news the Major had just uttered.

A battle... At this time, in this place, how could there possibly be a battle.

Canglang Star had already fallen nearly a month ago. Under Mikami Yuto’s heavy surprise attack, the Guard Fleet had been completely wiped out, and the few divisions resting on the surface had been almost totally annihilated. Even if, more than ten days ago, the 13th Armored Division and the 51st Infantry Division had sent out distress signals, given the time that had passed, there was absolutely no way they could still be alive.

No one doubted that. Even Admiral Li Hongwu, eldest son of the Marshal, had long since extinguished that last trace of extravagant hope. You had to understand, on Canglang Star there were a full hundred or so of the Western Alliance’s tiger-wolf elite divisions! They would never allow a unit that had just withdrawn from Leifeng Star to Canglang Star—its personnel exhausted, its weapons and equipment incomplete—to have survived until now!

But if it wasn’t that unit, who else could be fighting the Jiepeng people?!

A large-scale ground battle—everyone was certain they had not misheard. Those words immediately ruled out the possibility of local small armed groups fighting the Western Alliance.

For a moment, everyone held their breath.

All kinds of guesses surged into their minds, each person feeling their heartbeat quicken. Staring at the screen where the signal had yet to get through, their mood was such that every second felt like a year.

Time ticked past second by second, and finally, after a slight flicker, the screen lit up!

The first thing to enter their field of view was a boundless blaze of light.

It was countless dense explosions, crisscrossing streaks of energy cannon light, white flashes belching from gun barrels, the tracer chains of energy machine guns, the winding exhaust trails of missiles...

In the night, that light was so dazzling, so blinding, so utterly blood‑stirring!

Strike fighters were closing in—thirty Chuckna Air Base Fighters in total, flying toward the combat zone. The camera kept zooming in. With a streak of white light, dozens of Mecha locked in mutual slaughter first emerged out of the darkness.

An internal Jiepeng fight?!

The white light flashed and vanished, and the battling Mecha sank back into dim illumination, indistinct. But in that instant, what they had seen was a group of identical Jiepeng Mecha tearing at each other. The disappointed sigh that rose, though soft, was unbearably heavy in that moment.

”Screen Two...” Li Hongwu suddenly ordered the staff officer beside him, ”Roll it back...”

The auto‑copied footage rewound on Screen Two; time seemed twisted back, everything returning to the moment of that white flash!

Amid the dozens of Mecha entangled in a killing melee, nearly ten Red Mecha, like bolts of lightning, lit up everyone’s eyes.

Felix clenched his fists till his knuckles whitened, teeth grinding; Su Fei covered her mouth with both hands... They were Jiepeng Mecha, yet on those Mecha hulls was the Chuckna ”Awakening Lion” insignia!

”Back a bit more!” Li Hongwu’s voice was already trembling.

The shot rolled back a little more, and in that one‑tenth of a second of footage, a White Mecha appeared in their view. Behind that White Mecha, two Chuckna ”Taixing,” half their bodies exposed amid the Red Mecha group. On the external armor plating of their hulls, white numeric serials were clearly visible.

”My God!”

Amid one staff officer’s muttered exclamation, a thunderous cheer erupted heavenward, and the entire analysis room boiled over!

Those were the Mecha serial numbers of the 13th Armored Division!

Li Hongwu dashed to the electronic sand table. Su Fei could clearly see that this mature, steady General, who always kept joy and anger from his face, was trembling slightly.

Li Hongwu had already pored over the coordinates from the last distress signal sent by the 13th Armored Division and the 51st Infantry Division countless times. Every deep, quiet night, he would lock himself in the operations room, stare at that great river on the electronic sand table, follow that long, twisting, tortuous escape route. Each time, the grief in his heart surged over him like a tide.

From the coordinates where the signal was sent, to the Karachi Riverfront, then to the Northern Mountain Region, then to Beiguan City, Li Hongwu looked step by step. As he watched, he calculated the time... When an unignorable possibility fully expanded in his heart, it took all his strength just to keep his tears from falling!

”General!” a staff officer reported, ”A large number of Jiepeng Forces have been discovered in the Northern Mountain Region.”

The cheering cut off abruptly. On the electronic map of the Northern Mountain Region, as the signals from the vanguard Mecha Group came back, one indicator light after another representing Jiepeng Forces flicked on.

The subsequent radar and sensor reports showed that throughout the entire Northern Mountain Region, south of Beiguan City, there were in fact another full twenty‑two Jiepeng Armored Divisions or Mechanical Infantry divisions. And in Beiguan City, to the east, south, west, and north, there were six more. These twenty‑eight Jiepeng units in total were making no attempt to conceal themselves, converging with full force on the combat area as their center.