"Do you still want us to protect you all the way back to the base?" Ling Lan raised one of her eyebrows. "Merits are not so easy to get. However, this is your only chance to use your own effort to gain some merits."
After she finished speaking, Ling Lan moved instantly to Song Yiqing's side. She patted his shoulder and said softly, "Opportunities don't come often. You don't want to go back with shame, right?"
Before Song Yiqing could reply, Ling Lan started to disappear slowly in front of him. Then, she was gone. It was as though her arrival was just Song Yiqing's illusion.
Song Yiqing almost fainted from anger. 'This b.a.s.t.a.r.d just threw me a sentence that perked up my interest and then left without waiting for my response. I had never seen such an irresponsible commanding officer before.'
However, he was right. He didn't want to go home in shame. He wanted to stand proudly in front of his grandfather, his father, and those siblings who looked down on him.
Song Yiqing clicked his tongue. Just like this, he was lured into this crazy mission. Fortunately, that b.a.s.t.a.r.d still had some conscience. Ling Lan gave each of his team members a radar system so that they were able to hide from all of Hailiya's patrols. The journey was frightening but they managed to reach the first line of defense safely.
"Regiment commander, what should we do now?" They had arrived at their destination, but the person in front didn't know what he should do now.
"What should we do now? Settle down here and have a rest. We'll wait for Commander Ling's orders," Song Yiqing replied to the person angrily. They finally managed to sneak into their enemy's territory. Now, they had to wait for the news from Ling Lan's side. 'Are they able to take down one of their enemy's bases?'
As one of the regiment commanders partic.i.p.ating in this mission, Song Yiqing didn't know which base Ling Lan was planning to attack. Actually, it should be said that all the regiment commanders didn't know which base they were attacking, only Ling Lan knew.
At this moment, Ling Lan, team 03 and team 08 of 250 Ace Mecha Clan were hiding on a leveled plain on a mountain not far away from Base Ailan. They had been here for almost two hours.
"Ailan is heavily guarded. The protective s.h.i.+eld is also very stable. These are the observations we have noticed during these two hours. Patrol teams appear every half an hour. Each patrol team patrolled for one hour each. There are 24 mechas in one patrol team. The numbers never change and they were never late too." Han Jijyun had recorded all their observations during these two hours in the hopes of finding a chance to attack them.
"If any patrol team is late, the base might reprimand and punish them. We are unable to make use of the patrol team to sneak in." Han Jijyun frowned. He knew that the bases of Hailiya were heavily guarded but he didn't expect the security to be so tight. There was no loophole for them to make use of.
"We can forget about sneaking in." Ling Lan replied calmly.
"Regiment commander?" Everyone looked at Ling Lan in shock.
"I'll be in charge of sneaking in." Ling Lan pointed at a patrol team that just flew out of the base. "What you all have to consider is whether you all could finish these mechas off within three minutes after they moved out of the radar range of the base." They had around the same amount of people as the patrol team. It wouldn't be easy killing all of them within such a short time.
Qi Long narrowed his eyes as he started calculating the possibility of completing this mission.
Liu Furong brought his team 02 to meet the other eight mecha clans at the designated gathering spot. Only Qi Long and Han Jijyun's team moved with Ling Lan.
"Leave them to me." Qi Long clenched his fist firmly. This was a hard task but he couldn't disappoint his Boss. He must complete this mission.
"That's good. One hour later, your 24 mechas will disguise themselves, and I'll let this base's mainframe accept your entry request. Remember, there is only one chance." Ling Lan looked intently at Qi Long and Han Jijyun's team.
Ailan had become a logistician base but there were still many patrols here. There should be at least 20 mecha clans guarding this base. Once these mecha clans noticed any signs of an invasion, they wouldn't be able to get out of the base with the supplies. No matter how strong they were, they couldn't kill their way out of the base. Thus, Qi Long must succeed.
"After entering the base, kill all the enemies that see you. Do not let anyone have the chance to reveal your ident.i.ty," Ling Lan said coldly. To ensure everyone's safety, they must learn to be cruel.
"I understand!" The team members of the two teams felt their hearts tightening. Their regiment commander's vicious words let them understand that they would face a brutal battle once they entered the base.
Ling Lan scanned them intently. She noticed that all of them were serious, including Qi Long and Han Jijyun. Compared to their team members, Ling Lan was more worried about Qi Long and Han Jijyun. She was afraid that they wouldn't be able to get used to this malicious style. However, they proved her wrong. She underestimated them.
Ling Lan finally felt at ease. She waved her hands and asked the two teams to carry out their mission. As they were leaving, her body disappeared slowly.
Qi Long looked at his Boss who was going to sneak into their enemy's base alone. He took a deep breath and ordered, "Let's get started!"
More than 20 shadows flew towards the back of the mountain. After some time, a group of mechas secretly moved out of the mountain and followed the patrol team from afar.
Half an hour later, the entrance of the base opened, allowing the mechas to get ejected out.
"There seemed to be mist today." One of the mecha operators felt that his winds.h.i.+eld seems blurry today, so he complained about it.
"Isn't this normal? It's near the evening now. The light is not strong, so it's normal to have some mist. Don't forget what we have below our base." Another mecha operator wasn't concern about the mist. There was a natural ice cave under their base, so it was common for them to see mist around their base in the morning and evening.
"It has been really hot recently. I haven't seen mist in a long time though," the mecha operator said.
"Stop talking. Hurry up and complete our patrol mission so that we can go back and rest." Their team leader stopped his team members from jabbering any longer. They could get some rest between their patrolling mission but the high intensity of the mission made them tired mentally. The team leader just wanted to complete his mission perfectly. He didn't care about the useless weather conditions.
"Yes, team leader!" The team members didn't dare to talk anymore. They ended their conversation and focused on operating their mechas.
"Domains can turn invisible but traces can still be found. I'm still unable to turn completely invisible in my gaseous state." Ling Lan had realized that her gaseous state was not perfected yet. Or rather, she only managed to master her liquid state.
"Luckily, Hailiya didn't expect a domain realm masters to invade them. If they had installed energy level detectors, I'll be unable to sneak into the base so easily." Ling Lan felt relieved.
"Weird!" One of the logisticians in the mecha hold touched his head curiously.
"What happened?" Another logistician asked in puzzlement.
"Nothing. I might have seen wrong." The logistician couldn't explain his feelings too. He shook his head. He just felt that the air in the mecha hold seemed fresher today. However, when he noticed that his comrade didn't sense anything, he thought that it was his illusion.
Ling Lan moved around the mecha hold and came to the JMC office. Her body appeared slowly.
The female soldiers in the JMC office were all conversing happily. They didn't know that something bad was going to happen soon.
One of the female soldiers sensed something and turned around instantly. She saw a soldier who was not wearing the Hailiya military uniform looking at them. When the female soldier looked over, the person smiled at her.
The smile was enchanting. She thought that she saw an angel from heaven.
"Sleep." A soft and gentle voice sounded beside her and she happily fell into a deep sleep.
Ling Lan retracted her smile and the warmth emitting from body disappeared, leaving only frigid coldness. "Little Four, control the base."
"Yes, Boss!" Little Four immediately took the order and controlled the entire JMC system. Then, he controlled the mainframe of the base too.
Ling Lan looked at all the female soldiers in the room. They had smiles on their faces but in actual fact, they were killed as blood flowed out of their eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. In the past, the Federation experienced the JMC bloodbath. Now, she was recreating another JMC bloodbath. She had no choice. For the sake of the soldiers of the Federation, she had to do this.
"Let me send you all down. You come with nothing and will leave with nothing. Leave this dirty world purely." Ling Lan lifted her right hand and said softly, "Ice Blockade."
All the female soldiers turned into ice statues. Then, Ling Lan snapped her fingers. The ice statues suddenly exploded, turning into countless crystal shards that dissipated slowly as they fall to the ground.
Ling Lan looked at the clean JMC office. She turned her head firmly and left. She needed to kill more enemies within this one hour.
The ma.s.sacre of Ailan was secretly in progress but the mecha clans positioned there didn't know it.
The commanding officer of the base was having a gathering with the various regiment commanders of the mecha clans. They were chatting and eating happily. To them, success was already in their hands, so it was reasonable for them to have a celebration.
"On the east side, only a few bases are still resisting fiercely against us. Unfortunately, the central command center doesn't want us to finish them off yet. If not, Planet Haijiao will already be ours." The commanding officer grabbed his wine gla.s.s and started conversing with the regiment commanders beside him.
"The commander-in-chief must have some plans that we don't know about," one of the regiment commanders said. He took a sip of his red wine and sighed. "I won't truly feel safe until Planet Haijiao became part of our country."
"Yes, we all know how tough the soldiers of the Huaxia Federation are. If we let them off like this, what if…" Another regiment commander remembered how they battled with the Huaxia Federation for so many years and felt worried.
"Stop talking nonsense." The commanding officer glared at them. They were going to achieve victory soon. If someone heard what he said, they would be in trouble.
"I'm sorry. I'm too drunk for my own good. Let's cheers for Hailiya's victory! Cheers!" The regiment commander knew his mistake so he quickly raised his cup and offered a toast to their country.
"For victory! Cheers!" Everyone raised their cups and toasted one another. The atmosphere turned lively again.
At this moment, a cold voice sounded behind them. "For my victory."
Everyone turned around in astonishment. A young soldier wearing the Federation's military uniform stood behind them. He had a smile on his face and a gla.s.s of red wine in his hand. He was raising his cup as though he wanted to offer them a toast.
"Who are you?" The commanding officer shouted in surprise. He regained his senses and shouted, "Guards, guards…"
The guards, who realized that something was amiss, rushed over. The moment they tried to reach for their beam guns, Ling Lan flicked her fingers. Then, the guards exploded and turned into a pile of blood and meat. The gruesome scene caused all the officers to turn pale in the face.
Ling Lan scoffed at the commanding officer. She said indifferently, "Stop shouting. It's useless. They can't save you."
By now, the commanding officer had realized that there were multiple thin strings around the room. There were even thin strings twirled around their bodies. He finally understood what had happened. The guards must have been turned into meat paste because of these thin strings.
The commanding officer was an experienced soldier, so he knew what all this entails. His face turned green as he said, "Domain realm master!"
'Why did a domain realm master appear on such a minor battlefield?' The existence of domain realm masters was like imperial operators. They were not allowed to enter a battlefield. However, this rule was just not written down in black and white, unlike the imperial operators and G.o.d-cla.s.s operators who were forbidden to enter a battlefield based on the Human United Agreement. It was just a verbal agreement between the various countries. Of course, to prevent the invasion of domain realm masters, some more important bases had energy detectors installed. However, Base Ailan was a second-grade defense base. It was a normal base with logisticians and with supplies kept in it. Therefore, it didn't have such detectors installed. Hence, Ling Lan was able to sneak in secretly.
Actually, Ling Lan chose this base because by-pa.s.sing its security was not too hard. She had to thank Little Four for this. Before the satellites were destroyed, Little Four had been looking through all the bases so Ling Lan knew the security level of each base accurately.
"Who are you? Why are you at our base?" As expected of a commanding officer. He was able to calm down quickly.
"Stop acting. Don't you know who I am?" Ling Lan sneered. She waved her left hand. The loose thin string became tighter. The officers got restricted by the strings so they couldn't move anymore. They wanted to contact their mecha clans but now, they couldn't because they couldn't even touch their communicators.
"You are really careful." The commanding officer smiled bitterly when he saw the dejected looks of the regiment commanders. He thought that the other party was young and unreliable so he attempted to keep him distracted with his words. That way, his subordinates would have the time to call for reinforcements. However, this young soldier saw through his plan.
