Chapter 510 Army Group

Luo Xudong felt he was going to die today.

Although he made this judgment almost every day during those 50-plus days.

As a logistics captain in charge of ammunition supply for the 'Lightning' team, Luo Xudong never hid his negativity. Even when his comrades expressed their annoyance with him and said things like "We're doomed," "We definitely can't escape this time," or "It's much better to swallow a bullet than to have a zombie bite and chew your knuckles," he would always confidently spout his own grand principles.

"It's better to maintain a certain level of negativity than to have hope and then suddenly despair. A huge gap can easily lead to a change in oneself."

He became increasingly adept at using this set of principles, and he would always bring up a bunch of outcomes he had seen on so-and-so to prove it, but only he himself knew whether those 'deeds' were true or not.

Therefore, Luo Xudong does not admit that he is a coward. Although he lost his wife and children on the day of the apocalypse in his middle age, he always comforts himself by saying that he has been able to live until now because he has some destiny.

However, today, on the 56th day that the Union Train was trapped in the Colorado Canyon, Luo Xudong’s thought that “this time we’re doomed” is more urgent than ever, even surpassing the fear of encountering a world-class disaster on the night of December 9th.

Thump thump thump! ! Tap tap tap!

Outside the train, artillery fire roared. Inside one of the Lightning's carriages, the air was thick with the smell of gunpowder and burning. Teammates responsible for setting up guns and firing cannons carried away one after another. The aisle was crowded with people, and the blood on the ground was indistinguishable as to whether it came from their own people or from the strange objects in the sky outside that had been blasted apart and flowed in through the gaps.

"Why haven't they retreated yet... why haven't they driven them back?"

"This shouldn't be the case. Today's firepower preparation is stronger than the past few days..." Luo Xudong squatted on the ground, loading one anti-aircraft shell after another into the magazine with his power armor. His face was gloomy. Every monster roar and his teammates' shrill screams outside would make his heart tremble. Several hours had passed, and he had fallen into a state of numbness, leaving only mechanical movements.

“We have several interstellar iron guard brigades, and so many superhumans, including the Infinity, the Silver Star, the ‘Mobile City’ Eternal Day, and the European Utopia—all of them are the strongest forces. How could they possibly lose…”

"Old Luo, where are the shells? What the hell are you still muttering about?!"

The anti-aircraft gun cockpit on the roof of the vehicle quickly descended. Deputy Captain Li Yong's power armor was charred black and emitting black smoke. The armor in front of him was torn open as if a panel had been ripped open, with several pieces of flesh from some strange creature hanging on it. The firepower outside was critical, and Li Yong saw Luo Xudong with his head down, fastening the magazine. He immediately became furious.

"What's your hurry!" Luo Xudong suddenly felt a surge of anger and turned to look at Li Yong angrily: "We have five regiments from the Iron Guard Brigade on both sides, plus a bunch of convoys of vehicles providing cover. Don't you know what tiered firepower configuration is?"

Clearly, the term "tiered firepower configuration" seems to perfectly reflect his military expertise as a former programmer, and he spoke with great confidence.

"What kind of crappy setup is this? Monsters are coming like a flood from the sky, how can I not be anxious?"

"You don't know anything!"

Luo Xudong put down the shell in his hand, glanced around, then quickly walked past his busy teammates to Li Yong's side, winked at him, and lowered his voice to say, "Didn't you see? Today's situation is different from the past few days. It's about to get dark. If the Iron Guard Brigade runs out of ammunition, these are our lifeline, you son of a bitch!"

Upon hearing this, Li Yong immediately frowned and looked at Luo Xudong, then suddenly sneered, giving him a look as if he were a fool.

"Are you out of your mind? If the Iron Guard Brigade is wiped out, how are we supposed to survive?"

He pointed outside: "Do you know what kind of guys they have and what kind of guys we have? Mech units! Electromagnetic cannons! Anode pulse cannons! Incendiary bombs! And there are those damn orbital seismic cannons and plasma cannons in the sky! If they can't hold them off, do you think those two boxes of 100-gun cannons you're scrambling out of your hands will be of much use?!"

"Keep your voice down!" Luo Xudong was immediately enraged upon hearing this. His eyes darted around, and he said indignantly, "I'm only thinking about our guys! Didn't you see how horribly Da Liu, Wang San, and Qian Xiaoyang died?!"

Li Yong sneered, then got out of the anti-aircraft gun cockpit and gestured to Luo Xudong with his eyes: "Alright, since Captain Luo is so considerate of his brothers, then let's take down a few more Crimson Monsters to avenge them. I'll give you this opportunity."

Li Yong knew Luo Xudong better than anyone. If you were to count the most cowardly people in the team, Luo Xudong would definitely be one of them. But this guy always liked to talk a big game and, when it mattered, he liked to hide behind his teammates. He was the kind of coward that Li Yong despised the most.

"I……"

Luo Xudong was stunned for a moment, his face showing uncertainty. Just as he was about to lose his temper, BOOM!

A violent shockwave swept in from afar, shaking the entire train with its shockwave and intense heat. A few seconds later, a bright beam of light suddenly shone through the shattered grille windows, like the sun descending.

"What's wrong?!" Li Yong shouted immediately.

"I don't know, it seems to be in the direction of Redstone Rift Valley, the front of the Silver Star train!" an observer responded.

"Look! The monster is retreating!!"

The furious artillery fire suddenly began to thin out, and everyone in the carriage rushed to the windows to look. Luo Xudong, looking incredulous, followed behind to see what was happening.

"It really is... the Crimson Tide has receded!!"

Rumble!

Outside the carriage, on the vast Black Stone Plain, the artillery barrage of the Iron Guard Brigade resounded continuously. The dark, monstrous tide receded like the tide, quickly retreating into the crimson depths, leaving behind mountains of monster corpses on the ground, which were directly crushed by the Iron Guard Brigade's heavy armored troops.

Upon seeing this, Luo Xudong's eyes widened immediately, and the weight lifted from his heart. He suddenly shouted loudly.

"The Iron Guard Brigade is invincible! With everyone united, we can definitely break through the Crimson! They must have taken down the S-class enemies ahead of us. We survived! We won!!!"

"We won!!!" The other team members, whose adrenaline was still at its peak and who were not yet aware of what was happening, were encouraged by him. Everyone was in high spirits and extremely excited.

Soon, news of the battle situation at the front came in, and the team began to discuss the bravery of Infinity and the various battle squads.

"It's said that reinforcements from the Phoenix Society have arrived. They opened fire at the South Heavenly Gate and took down that giant S-class octopus with a single shot!!"

"Great! I knew the Phoenix Society would never abandon us!"

"Haha, our ultimate weapon has finally arrived!"

Seeing the enthusiastic discussion among the crowd, Luo Xudong breathed a sigh of relief, feeling extremely excited.

“Okay, everyone has worked hard. I’ll take the night watch tonight.” He suddenly stood up, his face resolute.

Some people were surprised, and someone tried to smooth things over: "Never mind, Lao Luo, that's just how Captain Li is. He was just saying it in anger."

"Those cannons are a bit difficult to operate, so let us handle them."

Luo Xudong lost his temper. In an attempt to salvage his image within the team, he declared righteously, "What are you talking about? I've crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood. What kind of guns haven't I handled? It's settled then. Everyone, get some rest and conserve your energy. We'll definitely get out of here alive!"

After finishing speaking, he adjusted his power armor and climbed directly onto a machine gun turret. Luo Xudong knew very well that the monster tides had never stopped since the joint convoy began its great transfer. But what was very strange was that these monster tides almost always attacked during the day, and would retreat after assaulting the convoy for a few hours. Most importantly, there had never been a large-scale attack at night.

Even if there are any, they are just some scarlet zombies, energy-devouring insects, or ghostly hunting creatures. But the real concern is the Iron Guard Brigade and the convoys outside. Relatively speaking, there are many trains at night.

He knew he hadn't contributed much to the battle, so he cleverly used this opportunity to try and salvage his image and status. The other team members had just come down from the brink of death, so no one cared about such things. His initiative to keep watch immediately gained the approval of many people.

Luo Xudong had made his plans. He sat on the machine gun turret and climbed onto the roof of the vehicle. Looking at the silent battlefield outside, he was still a little nervous. A cold wind blew, making him shiver.

Just then, he suddenly saw a monster's shattered remains on the roof of the carriage move strangely.

Luo Xudong thought he was seeing things, so he focused his gaze and discovered that a faintly glowing spike suddenly emerged from under the body parts. The next moment, before Luo Xudong could react, a scarlet worm shot out like a bullet, piercing directly into his open mouth and penetrating through the back of his head.

Blood mist splattered.

...

In the Redstone Rift Valley, the scorched earth beneath the fiery clouds still radiated a terrifying residual heat. Crimson hurricanes howled in waves, and the massive energy weapon voids and nuclear explosion shockwaves in the sky gave the scene a bizarre feeling, as if it had been precisely cut by God. The survivors looked up at the scene caused by the heavenly punishment-level weapon and even had the feeling that the world was unreal.

Warships were landing, convoys were advancing, and the various units of the 22nd Brigade were closing in from all directions.

The world was a sea of ​​red, but at that moment, countless positive voices were being transmitted across the communication bands.

Exhilaration, joy, ecstasy, the relief of surviving a catastrophe, but at the same time, some people are trying to remain calm, worrying about tomorrow, considering evacuation, and mourning the dead.

Amidst the scorched earth of the battlefield, a group of fully armored train crew members are searching the area. Their purpose is none other than to find survivors and... any useful supplies.

Thump~

A group of people pushed aside a five- or six-meter-long, several-ton, drooping tentacle, and then dragged a soldier from the Iron Guard Brigade out of the sandpit.

"Dead."

The young man in front crouched down and brushed away the sand and bits of flesh from the body of the dead Iron Guard soldier. He reached out and pressed a switch on the power armor core in the soldier's chest. With a click, the triangular gate of the power source in the chest was deactivated, and a plume of black smoke billowed out. Then, a microsatellite power core the size of a palm slowly popped out, while the main core inside had melted into a piece of gray reactive material, emitting a pungent smell.

The young man stood up and said to his teammates behind him, "The energy-devouring bugs are really fast. We couldn't find a single core capacitor."

Sun Yuzhen flapped her wings and fell from the sky, her whole body covered in the Infinite's specially made nano armor. As the head of the logistics search team, she was in charge of the battlefield cleanup work in the No. 1 formation area where the Silver Star and Sky Dome were located. Don't underestimate this battlefield cleanup team. The level of danger is quite high, and the number of people in the cleanup team for just one area is nearly 600.

"Remove the power armor, but don't forget the identification tag."

"Understood, Sister Sun!"

Sun Yuzhen's gaze swept over the bodies of the Iron Guard Brigade and the resistance survivors lying dead on the ground. She sighed softly and then took off again to other areas.

"We don't have much time today. We must finish within 30 minutes. If we exceed the time limit, we will all have to give up. Everyone needs to catch their breath and prepare. We can't afford to cause trouble at this time."

On the other side, numerous large warships of the Thunderbolt Fleet were landing on a plain, while the colossal Sky Train, nearly five kilometers long, roared down from the sky like a giant dragon, sweeping away a large cloud of dust, and stopped on the reserved track in front of the Silver Star.

As darkness approached, the drone construction swarm continued its work. Under Viola's overall management, these robots operated 24 hours a day, frantically clearing the way for the joint convoy.

They are currently setting up temporary tracks in a completely desolate area to support the more than 100-kilometer-long joint train line. For the train team, the railway guard brigade, and the various supporting motor vehicle teams, the difficulty is like climbing to the sky.

What they had to do was cross hundreds of kilometers of Colorado canyons and Black Rock Plains in this scarlet zone where ordinary people would be in mortal danger if exposed for 30 minutes, and face S-class enemies, predators, and endless scarlet tides.

Most importantly...

Although the Iron Guard Brigade has an engineer regiment, the train team has track-laying vehicles, and there are some prepared track materials, and even the Infinite has Viola and thousands of engineering construction drones, they do not have the industrial capacity for large-scale casting. Without strong industrial support, even with two elite Iron Guard Brigades, three war fleets, and countless superhumans, they cannot do anything about how to bring these more than four thousand steel dragons of various types, carrying two to three million people, out of the Crimson City.

Cars are a drop in the ocean; leaving a vehicle in the Crimson Zone means certain death. The Crimson Zone is fraught with danger, and this vast area and the more than 100-kilometer-long battlefront could be attacked by the Crimson Zone at any time, triggering a chain reaction.

Therefore, they are facing an almost unsolvable situation.

Inside the main bridge of the Sky Train, a communications council with over a hundred participants was taking place. The main attendees included General Li Sheng, commander of the 13th Iron Guard Brigade; General Zeng Weiguo of the 22nd Iron Guard Brigade; Luo Shaokai, chief of staff of the Second Intercontinental Force; commanders from the Firestone, Dragon Kun, Thunderbolt, and Air Fleets; some operational officers from the Phoenix Society's Dawn Center; key members from over a dozen major train regiments such as the Infinite Alliance, the 'Mobile City' Eternal Day, and the Trans-Eurasian Utopia; and leaders from supporting motor transport regiments like the Common Alliance.

Communication was primarily achieved through wired amplification of the joint trains connecting various battlefields. Within this massive marching column, teams of all sizes were far apart and could only conduct discussions via frequency bands.

Clearly, the S-class kill had greatly boosted morale across all orbital sectors. At this moment, after hearing the analysis from the leaders of the Infinite, led by Chen Sixuan, Jiang Yun, and Jian Xuwei, Luo Shaokai, the Second Intercontinental Force's Chief of Staff, spoke up to inquire...

"Can you confirm that the swordsman is Lin Xian?"

“Yes.” Inside the main bridge of the Sky Train, almost all the captains of the Infinite and various Infinite Alliances, including He Linqiu, were gathered here. Chen Sixuan calmly said, “There are only two people who can control the South Heavenly Gate. During the Grand Canyon encounter, it was Chu Yan from the North American United Front who gave the order for the ground attack. But Chu Yan has disappeared. Although we cannot be sure whether it is because of the Foundation’s defection, if she is already with the Foundation, how could she possibly attack an S-class anomaly?”

“That makes sense.” General Li Sheng, commander of the 13th Iron Guard Brigade, wearing round-framed glasses, had a cold, soldierly air beneath his simple appearance. “It seems that the support troops have definitely entered North America.”

"Entering North America? An army group is advancing?"

General Zeng Weiguo of the 22nd Iron Guard Brigade exclaimed in shock: "Impossible! Unless we find a way to push back the Crimson, how could the large Arctic forces possibly advance here? Wouldn't that be penny-wise and pound-foolish?"

"If they don't enter North America, how can they accurately pinpoint our location and provide artillery support?" General Li Sheng said at this moment. "Scarlet has cut off all communications, making even observation within a few kilometers a problem. They must have used high-altitude drones to search and then use precision guidance. It's impossible that they were firing randomly, right?"

“There’s another possibility.” At this moment, Commander Wu Xiangqun of the Thunder Fleet said, “We detonated an X3, and perhaps our allies locked on us through high temperature.”

"Not that fast. You just detonated it, and it's here right away. They must have made ample preparations."

General Li Sheng continued, "I agree with that. What do you think, General Luo?"

Although they belong to different organizations, the Chief of Staff of the Second Intercontinental Force is the most senior in the Scarlet Dilemma. All kinds of decisions are based on the suggestions of others, but in the end, everyone will take his judgment and opinion as the main factor.

Inside the base vehicle, the gray-haired old man, Luo, pondered for a moment before speaking.

“I agree with Captain Chen’s opinion. Lin Xian is their leader, and they should know him very well.”

"Although we don't know the headquarters' intentions, this is currently a favorable situation for the people of all the trains and battle groups!"

This statement was met with unanimous approval from everyone present.

General Zeng Weiguo of the 22nd Iron Guard Brigade spoke up in great fear.

"So, does that mean the Phoenix has sent an army group to support us, and they've already reached North America?!"

Upon hearing this, Chen Sixuan, inside the Sky Train, looked at everyone: Jian Xuwei, Ning Jing, Qian Dele, Monica, Jiang Yun…

Their eyes met, and amidst the excitement, a question arose.

A rescue operation spanning an entire continent sounds incredibly unbelievable. Has the Phoenix Society really gone so far as to abandon the polar regions and risk all of human civilization?

(End of this chapter)