The CA Formation was anchored by a vanguard force of twenty thousand from the Huaxia Front, supplemented by Azure Expeditionary Forces from various small and medium-sized nations, totaling over forty thousand troops.
As a trustworthy, dependable backbone combat force, it was among the first formations to receive landing orders.
Thus, at this moment, when Captain Lao Jian finished answering the transmission, looked up, turned, and silently signaled Squad 1777 to assemble, it essentially marked the official opening of the prelude.
A great evacuation involving nearly twenty million inhabitants of Oceania and a massive decisive battle intertwined with the fate of all humanity began here.
The operation was officially designated: the Zenith War.
According to Azure's plan, the pre-battle evacuation and ambush operations would unfold in stages across Oceania over no more than two days and three nights, dispersed along its perimeter.
Along the vast coastline, every reef and offshore island could be utilized. In certain areas, residents had already been gathered on islands in advance, where small ferrying boats stood waiting.
With the orders delivered, the combat units began to assemble. Beneath the night sky, flotillas of ships powered up.
Aside from the rumble of engines and the churning of water, not a single horn sounded.
Across the southward sea, thousands of churning wakes were carved into the surface...
Azure had mobilized the most advanced naval vessels from almost every nation across the globe for this operation, yet they had not deployed a single giant vessel.
Because a large ship meant a large target.
Furthermore, Azure's internal calculations forbade any freighter or warship from carrying more than two thousand people. If the Great Spikes chose to abandon the ground battlefield and instead dispatched aircraft to bombard vessels during pursuit and interception, the result for ordinary people would be catastrophic.
Roughly two hours later, the Huaxia warship carrying Squad 1777 came to a halt on the water.
In the dark of night, the distant outline of land was faintly visible. Lao Jian took a look, turned around, and said, "Prepare to disembark."
"...Yes, sir," the squad members responded in a hushed, uniform chorus, even though their voices could never have drowned out the noise of the ship underway.
An operation on this scale going unnoticed by the Great Spikes? That was entirely unrealistic. All humanity could hope for was that their reactions and movements would be slightly delayed. Even then, mankind could only place their faith in the enemy remaining foolish or supremely arrogant.
"Let's hope they keep their attention fixed on land," even Azure's strategists could only pray.
In truth, if hindsight were a remedy, this battle should have been fought much earlier—ideally right at the onset of the Great Spikes' blanket invasion, back when they were largely ignorant of their surroundings.
"Um, Captain Lao," Zhao Erzhu suddenly raised his hand from within Squad 1777's ranks.
"Speak."
"Are there sharks in the sea around here? If there are sharks..."
"Get lost." Lao Jian paused, then softened his tone. "Don't forget you're a top combatant, Erzhu. If there's a shark, give it a slash, drag it back here, and it can be our rations for the next few days."
"All right, stay close to me." Before Zhao Erzhu could say another word, Lao Jian turned and dived headfirst into the sea with a loud splash.
Swimming training had already been completed as a unit during the two-hour boat journey. The powerful thrust supplied by source energy apparatuses allowed any Azure soldier to pick up swimming with ease; unless someone had a phobia of water, all they needed to do was paddle their arms and legs.
Furthermore, even a veteran "pirate" like Hu Biaomao was by no means a match in swimming speed for a beginner with top-tier power like Zhao Erzhu.
Once Zhao Erzhu really started thrashing through the water, his speed rivaled a torpedo—and naturally, the spray was immense, as if five-hundred-jin heavyweights were raining down everywhere from the sky.
*Kersplash, kersplash, kersplash...*
For twenty meters ahead and straight overhead, everything was a wall of churning white foam. Lao Jian wiped the water from his face, forcing his eyes open. "Zhao Erzhu! Get the fuck away from me!"
"Uh..." Zhao Erzhu paddled in reverse against the current, backing off. "Didn't you tell me to stay close to you, Captain?"
"Yes... but I need to see where I'm going, understand? With you doing that, I can't see a damn thing. So go to the back and follow from there, will you, Erzhu? You're fast anyway, so you won't get left behind, and you can guard everyone from the rear."
"All right," Zhao Erzhu nodded aggrievedly, treading water as he waited for Lao Jian to swim ahead and for the last squad member to pass him.
Then: *Kersplash, kersplash, kersplash...*
About an hour later.
As the squad regrouped on the shore, some of the young soldiers who had set foot abroad for the first time were still marveling that foreign mud wasn't really all that different from their own...
Captain Lao, who was busy taking roll, suddenly panicked.
"Where's Zhao Erzhu? Has anyone seen him?"
"..." Qin Guowen shook his head blankly.
"Come to think of it, for the last twenty minutes or so, I don't think I heard him splashing," a soldier who had been swimming near the rear recalled.
So, Zhao Erzhu was lost.
Before Squad 1777 had even engaged in combat, they had already lost a top combatant.
"Given his combat power, there's no way he was actually eaten by a shark," Qin Guowen analyzed rationally. "The only possibility is that with all the spray, he couldn't see clearly either and followed some other squad instead."
If this were Wu Xu, they might have suspected he had swum back home, or all the way to the Americas, South Axia, Antarctica, or even the Arctic.
Zhao Erzhu, however, still possessed a basic sense of direction.
"Don't panic, Captain. He can't have strayed too far anyway. Let's wait a bit. As soon as another squad finds him, we'll know."
Even though Zhao Erzhu didn't speak foreign languages, foreigners would certainly recognize his Huaxia Front badge...
Thinking it over, Lao Jian calmed down and instructed the squad members to prepare for subsequent movements while waiting.
Five minutes, ten minutes, twenty minutes...
Just as Lao Jian's anxiety was beginning to flare up again, a comrade from the neighboring Third Army ran over, saying that on the other side, in an Armenian squad, a lost Huaxia soldier had just been found.
When Lao Jian arrived, Zhao Erzhu was still standing by the water, surrounded by a group of Armenian soldiers, grinning and gesturing back and forth...
Not far behind him, nestled among the rocks, lay a dead shark.
Apart from blood trickling from its mouth, the shark bore no wounds or blood on its body whatsoever; it had likely been slapped to death with bare hands.
What was more, this was quite possibly the very first kill of the entire war.
"Captain Lao, look!" Spotting Lao Jian, Zhao Erzhu lowered his voice, waved, and flashed a beaming grin.
"Yeah," Lao Jian said with a wry smile, walking over with an expression of mingled helplessness and worry. "Erzhu..."
"Huh?"
"From now on, I'm definitely going to watch how I talk to you." Lao Jian put an arm around Zhao Erzhu's shoulders as they walked back. "And once we're on the battlefield, you'd better stick with me after all."
"Oh. We're leaving the shark behind?" As they walked, Zhao Erzhu cast a reluctant glance over his shoulder. He had never tasted shark meat before.
"Leave it. I'm talking to you—did you hear what I said?" Lao Jian turned him around, speaking sternly. "I said when we get to the battlefield, you must stay close to me, understand? This isn't like the minor skirmishes we usually handle on missions..."
"Oh, sure, that's fine," Zhao Erzhu said after some thought. "Only, Captain... once the fighting really starts, with your combat power, you might not be able to keep up with me."
Chapter 664