Chapter 3.5 - Soldier
An off-road vehicle drove over. The one that was driving was Su, and the one in the front passenger seat was Li Gaolei. What was rather striking was that the trunk was stuffed with guns and ammunition. The off-road vehicle was like a runaway horse as it rushed over, and those that saw it couldn’t help but worry whether the intense shaking of the trunk would cause the ammunition to explode.
As soon as Li and Li Gaolei hurried over, they joined the tactical discussion. Enzo’s tactical tablet showed Pendulum City’s terrain, and Su, Kane, Enzo, Li, and Li Gaolei formed a circle around it to talk about their plan. Based on what Li Gaolei said, this time, the Blue Scorpion’s attack comprised of six tanks of various models, as well as a hundred soldiers. It was unknown whether they still had further assistance coming. Meanwhile, on Su’s side, apart from two dragonriders and three subordinates, there were only twenty soldiers who had just learned how to use the new era weapons. If they were to talk about the advantages on their sides, then they had two dragonriders with clearly superior levels of ability, as well as the ‘bronze dragons’ that Enzo claimed to be able to easily defeat the Blue Scorpions’ tanks.
Su found right from the start that he couldn’t contribute the slightest bit to this discussion, and later on, the tactical plan became Li and Enzo’s job. The attack was scheduled during daytime, which sharply differed from Su’s original plan of attacking at midnight. Their method of attack also wasn’t the infiltration attack that Su had imagined, and was instead to trick Blue Scorpion into leaving Pendulum City before commencing the attack. This way, the power of the ‘bronze dragons’ could be fully displayed, wiping out the Blue Scorpion’s tanks in one go.
Su discovered that the plotting that happened when two generals faced off was completely different from the ‘lone army putting up a brave fight’ he was used to fighting. Many of the things Li and Enzo talked about left him quite confused.
The amount of time they took to discuss things wasn’t that long. Enzo put away the tactical tablet and said, “We need to scout out Pendulum City first. Su, how do you feel? Can you still do it?”
“No problem.” Su was always moving his body around, and his movements seemed to become more and more nimble.
“That’s good them. I’ll head out with you,” Enzo said. However, when he saw Su who had practically completely recovered in just half an hour, he still cursed inwardly, “Combat Domain freak.”
Su and Enzo rode in an off-road vehicle, and only when it reached ten kilometers away from Pendulum City did it drop off the two dragonriders. There were three ‘bronze dragons’ on the off-road vehicle, so if they encountered a Blue Scorpion tank, Enzo didn’t mind giving the power of the ‘bronze dragons’ a test. On the other side, Li led the remaining soldiers to arrange an ambush. During the tactical discussion, she already displayed enough military skills, and even Kane who excelled more at guerilla warfare did not show any objection towards her taking command of their group. As for Li Gaolei, he was always Li’s fan.
Pendulum City was quite large. More than a hundred Blue Scorpion soldiers were scattered inside just like ants within a large flower garden. Forget about an all around defense, the number of personnel they had to look after the large building was a bit scarce. As for the security net that had been laid out with electronic equipment, in front of the two dragonriders, it was as if they didn’t exist. As such, Su and Enzo headed inside Pendulum City without much difficulty. Under the screen of all types of constructs, they headed towards Roxland’s branch headquarters.
The first half of the imposing branch building was already scorched black, and the enormous bullet holes left behind by the attacks of tanks could be seen. Many windows continuously released surging thick smoke, to the point where flames were still flying out from the windows. When they were forced to retreat, Li Gaolei ordered the higher level laboratory to be burnt down to prevent Blue Scorpion from obtaining any information. Most of the watchtowers around Pendulum City only had a portion their structures leftover after being bombarded by firepower.
Blue Scorpion’s assault was extremely sudden and abnormally ferocious. When the sentinels saw the tank fleet charge over within the smoke and dust, there was less than ten minutes for them to prepare for war. When faced with such a great disparity in their level of equipment, even though the soldiers under Li had been trained well in borrowing the cover of ruined constructs and various terrain to snipe down Blue Scorpion, it only managed to slightly delay the other party’s advance. The old-fashioned heavy artillery within the city was only able to fire two rounds before its trajectory was determined and then shot down by one of the enemy’s tank cannons.
The greatest danger for the Roxland soldiers were the anti-infantry landmines. They would oftentimes be met with an intelligent landmine after turning a corner. Blue Scorpion’s life detector was also extremely advanced; as long as they were within thirty meters, even if they were hiding behind a thick cement wall, they still couldn’t escape the accurate blast of a tank’s cannon.
The guerilla warfare that used to be the nightmare of armored troops, under the suppression of overwhelming equipment, could not display much use.
After just ten minutes of combat, Li had no choice but to give the order to retreat. After abandoning thirty or so men, she brought the remaining seventy to eighty researchers, engineers, and soldiers out from Pendulum City. Su told them the general direction of Dragon City, so they had no choice but to flee there. However, the distance between Pendulum City and Dragon City was close to three hundred kilometers. Based on Roxland’s old-fashioned vehicles’ performance, they would be caught by Blue Scorpion after fleeing just a hundred kilometers. The troops that were left behind could only stall the enemy for a bit over ten minutes at most.
This was the case unless Li and Li Gaolei abandoned their army to flee alone inside an off-road vehicle. However, unknown whether it was due to some tacit understanding between them, Li and Li Gaolei both chose to stay behind. However, they were lucky enough to run into Su who hurried over alone. If Su came ten minutes later, then what he would have seen would be a ground littered with corpses.
Inside of a small alley within Pendulum City, Enzo’s body was bent at the waist while quickly running. At the end of the alley was a wall. After exerting some force, Enzo leapt up, his body softly leaping over the two meter tall wall. When he landed, his foot stepped on a piece of unstable brick, and it released a light crack sound.
On the other side of the wall was the garden of a three-floor apartment building. Su squatted behind the apartment building’s back door and carefully inspected the two corpses that were lying on the flight of stairs, seemingly not have heard the sound Enzo made when he landed.
Enzo lightened his footsteps and reached behind Su before squatting down as well. After following Su around a small half of Pendulum City, his breath was already starting to become heavy, and his face continuously released sweat. Seeing Su’s breathing that was well-distributed and drawn out, Enzo already didn’t have the strength to curse, even if it was just inwardly.
“Is there a problem with this woman?” Enzo suppressed his voice and asked.
The woman’s body was lying over three treads, and at the side of the stairs laid a small girl that seemed only seven or eight years of age. The woman seemed about thirty years of age, rather healthy-looking in appearance, and possessed a mature type of beauty. The mortal wound was a small hole beneath her left chest, but the blood flowed continuously below her like a small puddle. This was a wound that was definitely caused by a new-era rifle, small but sufficiently deadly.
“Her looks aren’t bad, but the Blue Scorpion soldiers directly killed her without touching her. This is a bit strange. This is true for the little girl over there as well,” said Su. He used a flat tone to narrate the most commonly seen savage acts during war.
Enzo also frowned. Removing his gloves, he gently rubbed the woman’s face. The feeling he received from his fingertips was exquisite and soft, but it contained an uncomfortable coldness.
“This woman isn’t bad. Those scorpions didn’t have any reason to let her go. She doesn’t have any combat abilities, so killing her is a bit unfortunate. These types of women are quite rare in the wilderness.” Enzo walked over to the little girl’s corpse and used the military knife to slice off her clothes. After taking a look at her body, he added, “The little fellow’s body doesn’t have any mutated tissues. Men on the battlefield are all wild beasts and definitely wouldn’t let such a tasty thing go. You are right, these scorpions are extremely strange.”
Su stood up. Through the deserted hallway, he gazed into the area on the other side. His face appeared a bit pale, because the world made of void images had reappeared.
He saw the woman carry the little girl and frantically run through the apartment building’s entrance before following the corridor to the garden. However, a bullet flew over and pierced through the little girl’s calf. Then, the woman spread her arms to stop the back door, and the little girl cried as she tried to climb to the flowers below.
A string of dark blood blossomed from the woman’s back. She helplessly fell down while facing the sky, and then a Blue Scorpion soldier appeared at the back door. He emotionlessly fired another shot at the little girl who was struggling to crawl away before turning around and leaving.
The world of void images appeared and disappeared intermittently. What Su could see were all discontinuous scenes. His reasoning told him that what had just appeared in the void world were events that had happened here just now, but Su still wasn’t willing to believe it. It was because there was no way to explain this phenomenon.