Chapter 103: Let Me Teach You How to Fight a Nuclear War
"Push harder, push harder! Push a bit more forcefully, this is the last one!"
At Devil Mountain Camp, the players pushed all the most valuable 3D printers into the cave.
"Should we push it deeper?"
"That's fine for now, time is tight, probably won't have enough time!"
"Everyone, if you're free, switch to industrial exoskeletons, go dismantle the blue lasers from the mechanical beetles, and transport them to the mountaintop to enhance defensive firepower!" Salty Fish shouted, directing.
"Received!"
"I need five more people over here to control all the charging base station drones to take off and form a dense reconnaissance formation towards Oasis City!"
"Here we come~ Where are our reinforcements? When will they arrive?"
"Don't worry, they're on their way! We just need to focus on our own tasks."
"Oh! Should we dismantle the solar panels on the mountaintop?"
"Collect them on the way down, collect as many as you can."
The camp had never been this busy before.
After getting busy, the players' anxiety dissipated a lot, and they even felt excited about the possible nuclear strike.
The livestream viewers who came because of the buzz were originally watching with schadenfreude, hoping to see the internal test players get bombed, but at this moment, infected by the atmosphere, their thoughts changed greatly.
Isn't this group a bit too professional!?
"They can really go colonize other planets, right?"
"Stop messing around, it's a game, just a game—"
"But all the actions inside require manual completion, there's none of that press-F-to-finish stuff."
"I suspect this game is a secret training program by the zZF for the Mars colonization plan!"
In geosynchronous orbit, Lu Yuan activated the advanced optoelectronic system on the industrial ship, aiming it at Oasis City below.
To put it simply, this system is an oversized camera with an equivalent lens diameter of 12 meters, and in addition to visible light, it can also capture infrared radiation.
With the support of advanced AI, it can clearly photograph the details of buildings and vehicles on the ground from a geosynchronous orbit over 35,000 kilometers high, with a resolution of less than one meter.
Lu Yuan saw the aircraft fleet at the Oasis City airfield; infrared signals showed that they had been warming up for a while.
At 3 PM Li Star time, the 'hummingbird' fleet took off, with three aircraft in the lead and seven following closely.
"Operation Pest Control has begun, repeat, Operation Pest Control has begun."
The commander, chewing gum, issued the order.
"Pest Control" was the operation codename personally set by Omar.
Insects, matching the opponent's current strength and their annoying degree, and the key to dealing with pest infestation is to do it early, otherwise, it becomes disgusting.
The esteemed Apollo Branch Chief accompanied the army on the expedition, greatly boosting morale.
What does this indicate? It indicates that in the eyes of this important figure, the operation's success rate is 100%.
The process will likely be very simple.
The aircraft fly within missile range, the launch button is pressed, they land after the explosion subsides, ground troops are deployed, and after they finish the scorched-earth cleanup, they return home and collect performance bonuses.
The team responsible for clearing the scorched earth was small in number, but they were considered elite soldiers and strong generals on Li Star, and some of them had high-configuration power armor, sufficient to deal with unexpected situations.
"Chief, the vanguard has arrived, please issue instructions."
The commander reported to Omar.
"According to the original plan."
"Received!"
The wedge formation of three 'hummingbird' aircraft dispersed, with two accelerating forward, encircling Devil Mountain Camp from the north and south directions.
"Launch!"
Three missiles dropped simultaneously from the bomb bay, ignited, climbed to a high altitude with lower air resistance, and continued to accelerate.
After exceeding Mach 2.5, the missiles hit the thermal barrier, and the temperature of their bodies rapidly increased.
This made them dazzling beacons in the drones' IRST infrared probes, observable from over 100 kilometers away.
"Targets detected! Three, Mach 6, still accelerating!"
In the underground cave, Salty Fish listened to the drone operator's report, his eyes fixed on the target image on the pad.
"Intercept according to the predetermined plan!"
The missiles were extremely fast, entering the pulse laser cannon's optimal range in just tens of seconds. When they flew to within 45 kilometers of the camp, the laser cannon successfully acquired the targets and immediately fired with maximum charge.
The infrared pulse laser beams hit accurately, immediately melting the nickel-steel casing of the ramjet missiles. Due to their high flight speed, even a slight change in aerodynamic shape would instantly turn airflow disturbances into huge lateral thrust.
The missiles tumbled violently, then exploded and disintegrated.
This kind of conventional explosion cannot trigger a nuclear reaction, but according to Apollo's pre-settings, as long as an abnormal flight state occurs,
the warhead will immediately detonate.
Of the three warheads, two had their fuzing mechanisms melted by the laser and failed to respond, while the remaining one successfully detonated.
An incredibly bright 'sun' appeared in Ye Xing's livestream.
The blue-white fireball generated by the nuclear explosion had a diameter exceeding three kilometers, maintaining a perfect spherical shape for a full three seconds before gradually expanding, turning dark red, and merging with the massive column of smoke and dust rising from the ground, forming the iconic mushroom cloud.
Beyond its dazzling brilliance, the nuclear explosion was eerily silent, stunningly beautiful.
"Holy crap! Are they serious?!"
The livestream was instantly flooded with bullet comments.
"Is that really a nuclear bomb!?"
"This, this, this..."
"Actually, it's okay. A relevant major undergraduate student passing by. Looking at the size and clarity of the mushroom cloud, the distance should still be far."
"It's not just a texture map to set the mood, right? Hahaha—"
【Nuclear explosion altitude: 21 kilometers; Projection point distance: 47 kilometers; Yield: Approximately 1.2 million tons】
The explosion information was displayed on Ye Xing's mask; the latter remained silent, unusually falling silent during the livestream.
Fortunately, the explosion point was far enough away, and the shockwave arrived two minutes later, reaching the camp along with the low explosion sound, its force greatly reduced, like a mere gust of wind, unable to shake the power-armored players remaining on the mountaintop.
But this does not mean the enemy's attack was weak and powerless.
"Chief, all three nuclear warheads have been intercepted."
"Understood."
Omar sat in the back seat of the reconnaissance aircraft with his legs crossed, completely unperturbed.
"Has the opponent launched a nuclear counterattack?"
"No, complete silence in the target direction, no reaction whatsoever."
"Counterattack? What counterattack?"
City Lord Cole, on the other hand, couldn't sit still.
"If Cangyuan launches a counterattack, wouldn't we—"
Omar's pale-eyed gaze turned towards the City Lord, his expression like a jackal's.
"Firstly, the opponent cannot be 'Cangyuan', you have no idea what that name signifies; secondly, if the opponent launched a nuclear counterattack, then your Oasis City would likely turn into ruins."
"Huh!?"
A torrent of curses erupted in the City Lord's mind.
"So shouldn't you have discussed it with me beforehand?!"
"But it doesn't matter, they won't do that."
Omar stated definitively, "I was probing just now. Now, the other side clearly saw the nuclear explosion but did not launch an equivalent nuclear counterattack, indicating that they are either as timid as mice, or they have no trump card at all!"
"And I—" Omar rubbed his fingers, "have far from played all the cards in my hand."
Ke'er was speechless.
You used my city to probe; of course, you aren't as timid as a mouse.
"Commander, is the data analysis not finished yet?"
"It's finished! Chief!"
Omar saw the specific parameters of the recent interception on the pad.
And Apollo had basically figured out the performance of the infrared pulse laser during the previous probes.
The 'hummingbird' that was shot down didn't die in vain either!
"Three missiles were intercepted by laser weapons at almost the same distance and the same time, and lasers are direct-fire weapons, meaning the defense system has no specific focus and is distributed in a ring shape. The initial interception range is about 50 kilometers, so Commander!"
"Here!"
"Change tactics, launch a saturation attack from the due east direction. Divide the remaining 17 warheads into multiple attack waves, specifically set up like this—."
Omar was in high spirits and began his exquisite and skillful battlefield micro-management.
"But Chief, if that's the case—"
"Shut up! Just do as I say!" He threw the pad aside, "Today I'm going to teach these lucky hillbillies what real war is!"
