Antarctic Hell (Part 1)

The 80th parallel south and the prime meridian have two intersection points, both falling upon the Antarctic Continent, symmetrical east and west. On the Western Front, the first echelon of Azure's vanguard—two hundred thousand soldiers advancing in groups—along with the two hundred thousand from the second wave, had been reduced by brutal combat to fewer than 320,000 men. They were now about to converge at the intersection point. Days of relentless forced marches and desperate battles had pushed the men's minds and bodies to the brink of utter exhaustion and agony. The burden of wounds and illness grew heavier by the day. In truth, on a mobile battlefield such as this, casualties and sickness were perhaps a greater threat than death itself. They were not merely a logistical drag, but a continuous, devastating blow to morale and atmosphere. In terms of sheer endurance, the army had reached the ragged edge of a spent arrow. Yet, on the flip side of that same coin, the morale, willpower, fury, and bloodlust of these 320,000 men had reached an absolute pinnacle at that very moment. To put it plainly: they had fought themselves into a frenzy. They could not afford to stop. After reaching a peak, a steep decline was inevitable. If they paused for too long, the momentum and lethal edge forged by these three forces along their grueling march would shift and entirely dissipate. Thus, the final general offensive was an arrow nocked to the string—it had to be released, and there was no holding it back. The general offensive would once again be spearheaded from the Western Front. Before converging, the three forces had repeatedly crisscrossed the region, carving up and destroying enemy lines. Though they had not penetrated deeply, they had eliminated a vast number of enemy forces while drawing away a portion of the Great Spikes from the central and eastern sectors. Now, the defenses standing between them and the pole remained the thickest and most tightly knit. Yet Azure's established strategy was precisely to launch the final offensive from this most formidable route. Once the Western Front threw itself against this impenetrable defensive line in a fight to the death and tangled violently with the Great Spike forces, provoking more of them to shift westward... The 1.2 million source energy troops in the center, who had already begun silently maneuvering toward Ellsworth Land—the junction between the Antarctic Peninsula and the continent proper—would launch an all-out offensive, plunging straight toward the traction field... As for the Eastern Front, Azure Headquarters could only maintain close communication and place their trust in Second Lieutenant Wen Jifei's tactical judgment and strategic perspective. After all, this was a battle fought for the very survival of humanity. *** On the Eastern Front, at the symmetrical intersection of latitude and longitude. To be precise, Stream Vanguard was not actually at the symmetrical intersection point. Their current position lay to the southeast, closer to the vicinity of Mount Erebus and nearer to the coastline, which made them look as though they were ready to flee at a moment's notice. Unlike Azure's forces on the Western Front, Stream Vanguard had halted. For now, their primary mode of operation was deploying small squads across the surrounding area to hunt for opportunities to wipe out enemy units. They sought to grind down the Great Spikes' fighting strength while resting, recovering, and gathering power as they waited for the tides of battle to turn. Yao Yue had arrived in Antarctica, but fortunately, she was stationed on the Antarctic Peninsula. Wen Jifei had no bandwidth to worry about her. Deprived of Han Qingyu's decisiveness and backbone, he was constantly swamped with responsibilities, requiring absolute focus in his deliberation. At the same time, the sense of unease lingering in Wen Jifei's heart had never faded. It spun and rolled continuously like a die that might at any moment land on life or death. In one respect, they were identical to the Western Front: Stream Vanguard's thrust into the east had come at the cost of harrowing casualties. Now that they had finally secured a moment to rest and reorganize, everyone seemed busy. Han Qingyu alone was the exception. He was no longer as silent as he had been upon returning from the volcanic crater, but most of the time he still kept quiet, keeping to himself. Death, slaughter, destruction... After days of living through this battlefield, Han Qingyu could face ordinary Great Spikes with equanimity. He would no longer lose his composure even when confronted with a Red Shoulder. At the same time, he had begun to accept watching his comrades fall and die at his side. This was war. Death was far too ordinary an occurrence. Even so, Han Qingyu still did not dare visit the medical bay. Too many dying struggles and tears were gathered there, along with endless agonizing wails, rivers of blood, and severed limbs... Han Qingyu did not know what he could possibly say to them. The Little Prince had told him that he used to be able to channel his source energy backward to create a unique life source energy block—something that could allow more people to survive. He had tried his best, but he simply could not do it. "Did they come here because they followed me?" Han Qingyu stood up and looked toward the medical bay. In the distance, four more stretchers draped in white sheets were being carried out. Stream Vanguard's medical corps was already exceptionally skilled. They had been personally trained and left behind by Zhe Qiuhong; nearly every one of them had taken turns working and studying alongside her. Yet every time a stretcher was carried away into the depths of the glacier, none of them could help but miss that aloof, plump female doctor. *** Inside Azure Headquarters' Classified Laboratory No. 0, the autopsy had been underway for three hours. "Let's take a break. At this rate, there's no way we'll finish in under two or three days." Elber took a seat on a stool and leaned his head back, panting heavily. Although he was not the lead surgeon, every single step, detail, and anatomical section of this autopsy demanded immense precision and focus. The mental strain far outweighed the physical fatigue. The three remaining researchers stepped back as well to rest and hydrate. The two surgical assistants first organized and replaced some of the instruments before heading into an adjoining room to disinfect, wash up, and drink water. Zhe Qiuhong was the only one who remained standing silently beside the autopsy table. Her eyes stayed locked onto Daie's corpse, lost in thought. When the young assistant girl returned from the adjacent room holding a sealed cup of water, she hesitated, wondering whether she should ask Zhe Qiuhong to take a break and have a drink. She tiptoed over to the side of the table, but before she could speak... "Look here. This Daie appears to have an old wound in this spot," Zhe Qiuhong suddenly said, pointing at the lower abdomen. "Huh?" The girl blinked, unable to see anything unusual. "Really?" In an instant, Elber and the others crowded around to observe. "...It does look like it." "It seems to be one. What about it?" Though the detail Zhe Qiuhong pointed out was minute and exceedingly difficult to discern, the people gathered here were the finest minds in their field. The section of Daie's lower abdomen was carefully sliced open... The damaged flesh had left behind faint traces after regrowing, even for an elite Great Spike. "Looks like this creature's regenerative capability really is extraordinary." "Indeed, that's been hypothesized before... The vitality of an elite Great Spike is absurdly strong." "Still, flesh is flesh in the end, and it was still hacked to death, wasn't it?" "Haha, you're right." Amid the relaxed banter around the autopsy table, Zhe Qiuhong slowly turned around. Beneath her protective suit, the eyes that were normally cool and unyielding revealed a rare flicker of urgency and panic. "What is it?!" Elber asked in alarm. "There's another Daie! There is another Daie in Antarctica!" Zhe Qiuhong cried, and then shouted frantically, "Quick, notify High Command! Notify the front lines!" In truth, Azure had not been entirely blind to the possibility; some had suspected and guarded against the chance that two Daies were involved in this invasion. However, if there really were two, why hadn't the other Daie seized the opportunity to strike after Han Qingyu killed the first and sent it crashing down? Why had the swarms of Great Spikes blanketing the skies over twenty-seven cities worldwide acted like headless flies the moment that Daie was slain, plunging blindly toward the ground and allowing humanity to seize vast stockpiles of resources and six motherships? Furthermore, over the past year and more, repeated reconnaissance operations and the purely reactive behavior of the Antarctic Great Spikes during the early phases of the expedition seemed to offer ample proof that they lacked effective strategic command. And yet... Daie's wounded flesh left traces after regeneration. This Daie's arms bore no such traces. Turn the clock back to last year, when a Daie had roamed dozens of cities across the globe, learning at breakneck speed and speaking to humans. In Xiongzhanli, General Ivan had severed one of its arms at the cost of his life. Though it was reported that the Daie had shown immediate signs of regeneration on the spot... the corpse of the Daie lying before them showed no traces whatsoever of previous injury or regrowth on either arm. This was completely wrong. Therefore, this corpse belonged to another Daie. The one slain by Han Qingyu during the Zenith War was not the one that had toured the globe and suffered that wound. That Daie was still alive! This meant that the Great Spike swarms in Antarctica should never have behaved as they currently did... They ought to possess highly efficient leadership. Because Daie possessed astonishing observation and learning capabilities. As early as the decisive battle of the Zenith War, it had already learned to use ordinary humans to threaten the army, and had even known to stage an ambush using airships submerged in water... "Quick! Send out the alert immediately...!" Elber's frantic roar was laced with terror, agony, and even a sliver of despair... Realizing the catastrophic gravity of the situation, he sprinted alongside his researchers toward the communications room.