This was the first time General Yelgena and the Azure staff officers had ever heard Second Lieutenant Wen Jifei make an on-the-spot tactical assessment and command decisions. Although they had all heard of and witnessed many of Stream Vanguard's glorious battles in the past, the difference between the two experiences was still vast.
At this juncture, before the plan was actually executed, no one could tell whether his reasoning and decisions were entirely correct. However, two things could already be affirmed right now.
First was this man's calm and decisiveness. To be sure, all soldiers needed calm and decisiveness, which set them apart from ordinary civilians, and Second Lieutenant Wen Jifei was actually still very young. Yet in that moment just now, when crisis suddenly erupted, he had undoubtedly been the calmest person present. To put it bluntly, even calmer than General Yelgena.
Calm thinking, rigorous logic, leading into decisive action... At least here and now, no one was temporarily able to raise any doubt or amendment to his contingency plan.
Second was this man's strategic vision and grasp of the overall situation. Even under such an urgent crisis, amidst the response and decisions he made, Second Lieutenant Wen Jifei still clearly and firmly maintained an overarching strategic perspective regarding the Martian theater.
If ordinary people could not see much in his plan right away, General Yelgena and Azure's staff officers undoubtedly could. In an instant, they grasped the core strategic principle of this plan—even as he defused the immediate crisis, Second Lieutenant Wen was already establishing an "air-ground coordinated combat system" for the Martian battlefield.
Separating the expeditionary fleet's personnel from their vessels would create a two-front battlefield, maximizing overall combat power while diversifying tactical options... Given the current intelligence, this was undoubtedly the most suitable decision with the greatest odds of success for the subsequent engagement.
"Are there any dissenting opinions?" The crisis was pressing. Though General Yelgena's voice remained steady, his cadence was brisk.
Silence reigned in the command room.
"Are there any additions?" General Yelgena asked again.
Tick.
Tock.
"Execute it." After another two seconds of silence, the supreme commander of the expeditionary force finally made his decision to carry out Wen Jifei's plan in its entirety.
Then, after a brief pause, he added, "Deploy half of the eighty reserve exploration craft to pose as attack ships, and furthermore..."
The exploration craft were too small, their propulsion was mediocre, and they were unmanned. Relying on them alone could never draw the attention of so many Great Spike craft. Therefore, human source energy vessels had to participate in this feint attack.
This was precisely what choked General Yelgena with hesitation: the expeditionary fleet had only sixty-six ships in total. After a grueling month-long journey full of unknown perils, they had finally arrived, only to be forced to deliberately sacrifice several of their own vessels before the battle had even officially begun.
Moreover, what caused him even greater sorrow and grief was that because time was so desperately tight and no prior preparations had been made, the Azure soldiers aboard the ships selected for sacrifice no longer had time to evacuate.
Those aboard were retired veterans who had defied death to answer the call of duty. They had finally reached this battlefield, yet before they could even lay eyes on a Great Spike, before they could swing their blades even once, they were going to be sacrificed.
In the entire expeditionary fleet, apart from a scarce few like Han Qingyu, practically no one could survive being smashed out of the sky inside an airship.
Standing with his head lowered, General Yelgena clenched both fists, trembling uncontrollably from the sheer strain. The tragedy of Siglo's Antarctic expedition—where an early oversight caused heavy, senseless casualties—seemed to be repeating itself upon him.
Under relentless and overwhelming pressure, profound agony and powerlessness were continually gnawing away at the veteran general's nerves...
The staff officers present naturally knew why General Yelgena was hesitating. Yet there was no time left. Involuntarily and in unison, their eyes drifted toward the speaker on the wall.
Silence lingered from the other end.
Because there was no video transmission, they could not see Wen Jifei's face. But they could imagine that right now, that face must bear a calm, resolute expression and cold, sharp eyes.
Is this perhaps the extraordinary decisiveness of Stream Vanguard's legendary young chief of staff? Just like last year, when he led the entirety of Stream Vanguard on that suicidal 'rush for redemption' on the Antarctic battlefield.
In this battle, on Mars, the very first battlefield decision Second Lieutenant Wen Jifei had made as a commander was sacrifice.
Sacrificing ships.
Sacrificing lives.
He was right. No one could say he was wrong in the slightest.
"General?!" The staff officers were forced to speak up and remind him, for time afforded no room for hesitation.
"A18, F04, B21..." General Yelgena began reading out the designations of the vessels tasked with "attacking the ground" to draw the Great Spike ships' attention.
He tried his best to choose medium-sized vessels (note: small vessels were inherently scarce in this expedition), yet every designation spoken still spelled the deaths of thousands of men.
In the end, General Yelgena read out the designations of five ships and said, "Execute orders."
Right then, "Wait. Plan revision." Second Lieutenant Wen Jifei's voice suddenly cut in.
He had just been persuaded. The total silence from the speaker earlier had been because someone had approached Wen Jifei from behind, prompting him to temporarily mute the microphone.
At this moment, two people stood by his side: Han Qingyu, fully armed, and Yang Qingbai in a spacesuit, holding his helmet beneath his arm.
"Second Lieutenant Wen, you..." Yelgena was both anxious and baffled.
"Cancel the sortie orders for those ships. Just let the forty exploration craft accompany a single large vessel," Wen Jifei said.
One ship?!
Just one ship?!
General Yelgena thought it was not enough, and the staff officers thought it was not enough.
Before they could even speak, Second Lieutenant Wen Jifei continued, "It's enough. Because... in a moment, Major Qing will actively attack them."
Why was one ship enough? The reason was simple: because he, Han Qingyu, and Yang Qingbai, along with that ship, would clash directly in midair against those fanning-out Great Spike vessels.
There was no way they wouldn't notice.
When Wen Jifei announced this revision to the plan, his mood was somewhat sour. If Qingzi and Yang Qingbai hadn't suddenly shown up just now, striving so hard and openly telling him how confident they were, and if time hadn't barred him from further hesitation... he never would have agreed to this.
Immediately following, before the command room could recover its senses, Yang Qingbai's voice came through: "Give me the Wings of the Dragon, General. Order it alongside the Doomsday Great Wall, match speed, and open the launch bay. We'll eject and board."
CA117: a large modified human source energy airship. Its silhouette was closest to an advanced human fighter jet, yet magnified over twenty times. At the same time, it possessed the strongest armor, the highest speed, and supreme maneuverability...
It was perhaps the only large human source energy vessel currently capable of going toe-to-toe with high-tier Great Spike craft and clashing on equal terms of performance.
It was also one of the crowning achievements among humanity's modified airships; its success had even involved a certain stroke of luck, making it temporarily impossible to replicate.
It belonged to Stream Vanguard, to Yang Qingbai.
On the day its refit was finally completed, the cheering, embracing Azure scientists and technicians on site had somehow known in their hearts that it could only belong to Yang Qingbai.
This was an acknowledgment of merit, a tribute to a legend, and a natural choice under the principle of capability.
Normally, aside from motherships, human source energy vessels only carried alphanumeric designations without names. But CA117 had one. It was called Wings of the Dragon, after Yang Qingbai's legendary moniker.
At this point, General Yelgena and the staff officers finally understood completely: the ships chosen for sacrifice didn't need to go, because the Wings of the Dragon would go, Yang Qingbai would go, and Major The Qing would go!
"No! I cannot agree to such a plan, absolutely not!" General Yelgena voiced his objection on the spot, his emotions flaring vehemently. "You know what this means, Second Lieutenant Wen! We cannot gamble our only hope of victory..."
If anything happened to Major Qing, what chances or possibilities would remain for everything that followed? This was the simplest and most direct logic. It was General Yelgena's conviction, and the consensus of all staff officers in the fleet—indeed, of everyone.
"Even those ships chosen for sacrifice and the veterans aboard them would surely agree with this and go without looking back..."
"They have already received notification. They know what they are going to do, and not a single one has objected!"
General Yelgena kept speaking.
"Rest easy. I know this just as well as you do, but I truly have confidence. Over this past period, I have learned how to maneuver and fight in the void outside the vessel, and I also have great faith in Major General Yang Qingbai." Han Qingyu's voice finally sounded, speaking rapidly, before adding, "There is no time, General."
Tick.
Tock.
"Execute it," Han Qingyu said calmly. He turned, clad in black with four blades, and walked out.
Yang Qingbai turned as well, putting on his spacesuit helmet as he walked.
Chapter 906