In late August 1991, on the Asia Plate, the Xilang Peak battlefield: human civilization's first large-scale war against the Great Spikes opened with a roar.
In nearly a century, it was the first massive mobilization in the history of the Azure forces. Marshaling transport capabilities of every kind, the assembled troops already exceeded thirty thousand, and reinforcements were continuously arriving.
Front armies of the South Asian nations, relief units from Southeast Asia, Australian reinforcements, elite squads rushed in by the Coalition from Europa and even the Americas... and the Huaxia Front.
Row upon row of military camps spread across the hilltops surrounding the base of Xilang Peak, distinguished by their flags.
The flags of the various Azure front armies all consisted of two sections: along the diagonal, the upper left featured the unified blue and the Coalition's guardian crest, while the lower right was filled with the representative colors of each nation's flag.
Beneath the snowcapped peaks, flags fluttered in the wind.
Here was Squad 1777—an ordinary squad, a few ordinary military tents.
Through the telescopic sight of the Milla 9, flag after colorful flag swept across the circular field of view.
Wen Jifei stood on an earthen mound outside Squad 1777's tents, cradling the rifle as he swept a semicircle from left to right... before finally aiming the barrel toward the snow-covered peak.
Continuous peaks stretched into the distance: from lush, verdant green up close, to withered yellow, to bare, blackish-brown rock faces, until at last, peak after peak gleamed snow-white.
Nearly seven days had passed since the war began, and humanity had already fallen back to the outermost perimeter.
"How is it? Did the Great Spikes drop any more big ships?" asked He Tangtang, chewing on a blade of grass beside him.
"No," Wen Jifei said, shaking his head without taking his eye off the scope. "Can't see any from here. Word is they only occasionally drop a few shuttle-shaped ones. As for the large ones... damn it all, that thing looks terrifying as hell!"
The faintly visible battleship of the Great Spike civilization rested in plain sight upon the snowy peak. Encased in jet-black armor plating, colossal and bizarrely shaped, it looked like two mutated sperm whales grown monstrously fused together, their heads stacked one above the other—the upper reared back, the lower jutting straight forward—sharing a single body.
"That's good. If another big one came down, I really don't know how we'd fight," He Tangtang muttered. He leaned back and lay on the grass, the direct plateau sunlight casting a bright glow across his closed eyelids.
Beside him, quite a few members of 1777 were sitting or lying around.
Wen Jifei glanced back at them. Sensing that everyone was downcast and uneasy, he turned back and asked with a grin, "If Qingzi were here, what do you think he'd say right now?"
"Hmm?"
"'A spaceship that big... just how huge would its metal block be?!'" Wen Jifei mimicked in a deadpan, deeply thoughtful tone.
Everyone burst out laughing.
Beneath her metal plates, Shen Yixiu couldn't help letting out a chuckle too—her first smile in the past three days. *Qingzi isn't here, so I'm supposed to be everyone's pillar of support, but I'm so nervous... What am I going to do if I can't keep it together?*
Liu Shiheng's figure came walking up the hillside.
Spotting him, Wen Jifei lowered the Milla 9 sniper rifle and called down, "How'd it go? Find out anything?"
Azure lacked experience in large-scale warfare, and organization was still somewhat chaotic at this stage. This left front-line squads feeling uneasy, forcing them to send people out on their own to dig for news.
Shaking his head, Liu Shiheng flashed a lewd grin. "Ran into an elite squad from Venezuela. One of them's a female lieutenant wearing just a tiny tank top... Tsk, tsk, so deep, so huge."
Wen Jifei: "Where is she?!"
He Tangtang: "Where is she?!"
"Ahem!" Vice-Captain Qin Guowen gave a loud, pointed cough from behind.
The boisterous laughter died down at once. This was the front line, after all. Squad 1777's style had always been that fooling around and being buddy-buddy back at base was fine, but on the front line, obeying superiors and strict discipline were absolute musts.
Perhaps one person was an exception... but he happened not to be here right now.
Under their attentive gazes, Qin Guowen stood at the tent entrance with a stern face, looked up, and said, "Where is she?! Quick, take me to see."
Laughter erupted once more. From top to bottom, every member of 1777 was trying in their own way to relieve the tension, but the results seemed somewhat hollow.
In fact, right after arriving three days ago, they had already been dragged into a battle. Swept along in confusion with a large force probing up the mountain, they hadn't even spotted a Great Spike before being pulled back by a retreat order and the surging tide of withdrawing troops.
At the time, they had simply found it baffling.
Only after asking around back at camp did they learn the truth behind that seemingly absurd scene: four squads from South Asian nations fighting at the front had been left forever at the foot of the snow peak.
Since then, Frontline Command had halted offensive operations, deploying super combat powers and elite squads to hold the mountain base, stabilize defenses, and devise new tactics.
Yet an overwhelming unease had already spread.
"Wait, where's Wu Xu?!" Wen Jifei suddenly snapped back to attention and asked Liu Shiheng.
They had sent two people to gather intel: Liu Shiheng, who understood a bit of English, was responsible for asking around, while Wu Xu's formidable combat strength ensured their safety.
"Huh? Wasn't he right behind me?" Liu Shiheng glanced back, bewildered.
Gone.
How was he gone? When had he vanished?
Then again, for someone who never said a word, wandering off unnoticed seemed pretty normal.
"Good thing Wu Xu has a communicator on him," Liu Shiheng said anxiously, filled with guilt and worry. "Quick, contact him!"
Wen Jifei nodded hurriedly.
Just then, the communicator at his waist chimed.
Connecting the call, he asked urgently, "Wu Xu?! Are you alright?"
"Yeah... I'm fine." Wu Xu paused over the communicator. "Could you guys come out and look for me? The flags and tents here all look the same. I don't know which one is ours."
"Don't laugh... Where are you right now?!"
"Under the biggest flag of our Huaxia Front."
Fortunately, Wu Xu had chosen the Huaxia Front's primary flag as a landmark.
Everyone looked up. It wasn't far.
Relieved, Wen Jifei couldn't help scolding him. "Wu Xu, honestly, knowing you have no sense of direction, why didn't you stick close to Liu Shiheng? Pulling something like—"
"I... I'm sorry. When I walked past the airfield earlier, a plane just happened to land. Among the people getting off, I saw someone whose back looked a lot like Qingzi, so I stopped to look," Wu Xu explained.
"..."
Wu Xu had only said he saw a figure at the airfield that looked like Qingzi, nothing more. Yet the people around him either hesitantly stood up or raised their heads with expectant eyes, their emotions and gazes undergoing a subtle, strange shift in that single instant.
So it seemed they couldn't really blame Wu Xu. Except that he ought to have called Liu Shiheng back to check together.
"...Was it Qingzi?! Did you get a clear look?" Wen Jifei asked.
"I don't know. It was pretty far. He walked off with a crowd, and there was a barbed-wire fence, so I didn't chase after him." Wu Xu felt guilty as well, offering an unusually long explanation.
"Oh. Then it can't be Qingzi. He's back in his hometown; how could he possibly come here? He probably doesn't even know." Wen Jifei acknowledged, adding, "Just wait there for me. I'll come get you right away."
With that, he and He Tangtang headed off to retrieve Wu Xu.
At the entrance of the tent, Captain Lao and Vice-Captain Qin exchanged a glance. They had to admit that hearing Wu Xu's words had sparked an involuntary flicker of hope and excitement in both of them as well.
In truth, because most of the veterans were handpicked and backed by the presence of Wu Xu and Shen Yixiu, Squad 1777's combat capability ranked high among ordinary squads even without Han Qingyu. Besides, they hadn't been deployed as an elite strike squad for this mission.
And yet...
"It feels like... we've lost our soul," Qin Guowen muttered with a bitter smile.
Chapter 246