Counterfeit Hero

Chapter 1593 -57: The Bandit Army Unleashed

On the highway six hundred kilometers west of Feiyang Capital, Hydefield, a convoy is speeding westward under the escort of mechas.

After passing through a flight road nearly two hundred meters wide, the lead off-road vehicle suddenly turns, entering a side road leading to a farm on the boundless plain.

The vast convoy obviously cannot simultaneously make a right turn into the suddenly narrow road entrance, some military vehicles simply roar and rush directly off the road shoulder, racing across the wasteland full of sand, gravel, and clusters of wild grass.

From above, the surging traffic rushing off the road appears like a galloping herd of bison spreading out after crossing the river. The rugged military vehicles and mechas kick up a skyful of dust and sand as they speed. Rotating and jumping wheels, swinging mechanical legs, contrast sharply between motion and stillness with the solid and expansive earth.

A few armed helicopters skim by overhead. At the ends of their short wings, two cylindrical ion engines emit streams of blue light. Higher up, a small transport ship is gradually descending under the escort of fighter jets, having passed through the clouds.

As the lightning-fast convoy charges into the outer gates of the “farm” surrounded by five consecutive metal fences, the immense and cold, hard black steel hull of the transport ship has already slid past less than a hundred meters above the convoy’s head. The shock-absorbing landing gear beneath the ship’s belly has opened, rows of indicator lights flash, and the roar from the massive anti-gravity engines is deafening.

The convoy races after the transport ship, almost within reach, leaving the sentry posts at the outer fences and gate house behind in an instant.

“Oh my God!” The lieutenant driving the lead off-road vehicle shouted in disbelief.

Beside him, in the passenger seat, Feiyang Army Colonel Barak stared ahead with wide eyes, gaze vacant.

Endless flames come together into a sea of fire a kilometer ahead, some vehicles stopped at a distance, hundreds of soldiers and medical staff running back and forth chaotically amid the shrill alarms. Buildings collapse behind them, enormous fireballs ascending behind them.

Before the off-road vehicle can come to a full stop at the third gate, Barak, seated in the passenger seat, is already out of the car.

“Medical team join the rescue, everyone else gather! Hurry, hurry, hurry!” Barak yelled wildly. His soldiers jumped out of transport vehicles, medical mechas rapidly deploy near the base, medics running with stretchers press their wind-blown hats, and Single Soldier Mechas quickly form into ranks.

As he walks towards the scene’s command crowd, Barak’s face has already turned pale. As the troops stationed closest to “Naji Farm,” he led his forces here in less than twenty minutes after receiving an emergency call from the Ministry of Defense. Yet, he never dreamed that this secret base referred to as a farm could turn into such a state.

What in the world happened?!

Facing the raging flames, Barak just reached the temporary command center crowd formed by several military and government high-level figures when he heard a huge noise coming from his left side. It was the transport ship forcefully landing. Even with the shock-absorbing landing gear cushions, the unhardened ground was pounded out by the heavy spaceship into several pits.

“Minister Wellington, Colonel Barak, commander of the Feiyang Army 232 Armored Division’s First Company, reporting to you.” Barak saluted an official with graying hair.

“Nice to meet you, Colonel.” Defense Minister Wellington, greatly injured, even after receiving bandages and changing into a temporary suit, still looked rather disheveled with his burnt hair, “Have all your men arrived?”

“I brought a battalion! They’re over there.” Barak looked at the wounded Wellington in surprise, then quickly turned his head, “Do you need my soldiers to enter the fire site to join the rescue?”

“Your mission is to maintain the base’s security defenses, the rest will be completed by the National Security Rapid Response Team.” Wellington waved his hand, turning his gaze onto the group of soldiers in black uniforms rapidly disembarking from the small transport ship.

“Yes!” Barak felt uneasy inside, saluted, and prepared to leave.

He didn’t know what accident struck the base, but for those coldly expressionless members of the National Security Rapid Response Team, he held no goodwill. He checked the time, raising his eyebrows slightly. Though the National Security Rapid Response Team was irritating, he had to admit that these guys far off in Hydefield arrived quite fast… faster than himself!

“Move aside, quickly!”

“Doctor!”

A group crowded around several stretchers rushed out from inside the base, Barak instinctively halted his steps. Perhaps the identities of the wounded on the stretchers were important, several high officials, including Wellington, chaotically rushed to meet them. Through the crowd, Barak suddenly spotted a brown Leray uniform. And laying on the stretcher was…….

A bolt of thunder streaked across the mind of Leray immigrant Barak. Yesterday afternoon, the voice of his friend who received his phone call now echoed in his ears.

“Tomorrow? Tomorrow might not be possible… oh, God, what a coincidence… really not possible… Honestly, tomorrow Admiral Bernadotte will meet President Francis for afternoon tea, I can’t be away for even a minute…”

At four in the afternoon, Barak stood outside the raging fire in the base.

The injured Defense Minister Wellington… the injured Bernadotte… officials unable to hide their panic… the rapidly arriving National Security Rapid Response Team… afternoon tea… President Francis… tightly guarded secret military base… a string of words in his mind pieced together, all the people swaying before his eyes.