Lengthened the Fuselage and Wingspan, Removed the Engine

Most survivor settlements in the oases followed a circular layout. The primary reason for this was that the "river embankments"—miracles bestowed by the Spirit of the Sand Sea—were largely circular. Under these conditions, the closer an area was to the center, the more humid and hospitable the climate. Naturally, the nobility and royalty resided primarily in the very center, and key administrative institutions were concentrated there as well. Yet precisely because of this, the Alliance did not need to be meticulous when designating their bombing zones. All they had to do was estimate distance and altitude, then dump their bombs as close to the bullseye as possible. The moment the Alliance dropped their leaflets, Beaufort, the city defense commander of Falcon City, ordered the evacuation of the central district. Troublesomely, their Majesty refused to relocate, insisting he would sit upon his throne until victory was won in this war. Anyone with eyes could see they had already lost. Yet that royal lord refused to accept reality. Even during Midal's last audience with him, his revered Majesty stubbornly maintained that as long as Triumph City declared war on Ideal City, everything would turn out fine. "His Majesty refuses to leave the palace. He insists on staying there to await Prince William's triumphant return... We have no choice. We must do everything possible to protect the palace. Not a single bomb can be allowed to land there." Listening to the Royal Guard captain, Commander Beaufort's brow furrowed, a look of profound difficulty rising on his face. "The castle is far too large a target... It's not as though we can negotiate with our enemy and ask them to move His Majesty's court out of their designated bombing zone." What was more, he did not believe the enemy would obediently drop their bombs according to the zones marked on those leaflets anyway. For all they knew, it was just a trick to herd everyone together for a massacre. Therefore, he had specifically sent men to disperse the civilians hiding in the "safe zones," ordering them to designated areas to seek shelter from the air raid, or simply to stay quietly in their homes. At the very least, they shouldn't clog the streets and get in the way. Midal knew his request was unreasonable, but having no better alternative, he could only sigh. "Deploy a few more anti-aircraft guns near the castle." With anti-aircraft fire to drive them off, they could at least prevent tactical bombers from dive-bombing. As for high-altitude level bombing by strategic bombers, that would be left entirely to luck. No one could predict where the bombs would fall. Beaufort nodded with a heavy expression. "That's all we can do." The Alliance had built an airfield near Bister Town and had reportedly deployed a large number of propeller planes. If nothing went awry, their bombers would likely take off from there. To intercept the Alliance aircraft, their ace pilot, Baron Acanth, had already led the 1st Air Squadron to the front lines. If things went favorably, they might intercept the Alliance bomber formation shortly after takeoff. Yet no one felt optimistic about it. After all, even the Wilantes' "Saber" jet fighters had been shot down by the Alliance. Hoping to wrest air superiority back from the Alliance with merely a few dozen "Eagle" fighters was nothing short of a pipedream. Just as Midal and Beaufort were conferring over which sector to strip of anti-aircraft guns to place atop His Majesty's castle, a guard with a rifle slung over his back jogged up. "Report! A telegram from the front!" Midal stepped forward, took the telegraph slip from the guard's hands, unfolded it, and glanced at it, his brows knitting together tightly. Noticing the shift in his expression, Beaufort stepped closer and asked, "What is it?" Midal handed the slip to him, explaining, "Word from headquarters. Griffin suspects the Alliance might deploy airborne troops for a surprise assault on Falcon City and urges us to remain on high alert. He has already coordinated the 2nd Division to pull back and reinforce us. If they're swift... they could reach us by tomorrow." "The 2nd Division... which 2nd Division?" "Ours. The one that previously withdrew from Oasis No. 9." Beaufort's facial muscles twitched slightly, and he couldn't help but say, "What's the point of sending those men here... To give us a demonstration of how badly the Alliance beat them?" Those were remnants pulled back from the City of Abundance. Rumor had it their strength of over ten thousand had been whittled down to a mere two thousand. After scrounging across ten regiments, they couldn't even assemble two full-strength regiments. As for reinforcements... There was simply no manpower left to plug the gaps. Seeing that Midal remained silent, Beaufort continued, "If you ask me, bringing those fellows back is worse than expanding our mobilization." Midal shook his head. "There is no spare manpower left to use... Even if the women in the city gave birth right this second, it would be too late." Everyone capable of fighting had been dispatched to the front lines or to labor camps; civilian production had ground to a virtual halt. In truth, even if the fighting ceased immediately, their economy was already ruined. They were barely clinging to half a breath only because the war was still dragging on. Reflecting on the kingdom's present plight, both men lapsed into silence. Looking at the muted Beaufort, Midal patted his shoulder, offering a strained word of encouragement. "Don't worry too much... Even if the Alliance harbors designs on our royal capital, they can't simply bypass the tens of thousands of troops stationed along the border." "At the very least, we just have to survive tonight." Although Griffin believed the Alliance might use paratroopers for a surprise raid on Falcon City, neither of them took the telegram's alarmist warning seriously. Airborne operations and air raids were two entirely different beasts. Even if the Alliance had secured air superiority, heavily guarded Falcon City held five to six thousand soldiers, alongside two to three hundred thousand residents. Even if they truly intended to commit airborne troops, it was unlikely to happen tonight. They would at least soften the city up with several days of bombing first... Just then, air raid sirens suddenly began wailing from the east of the city. The piercing sirens shattered Midal's train of thought. He looked toward the pitch-black night sky to the east, his brow furrowing slightly. "The Alliance planes are already here?" Beaufort didn't speak, but his heart sank to rock bottom. Alliance aircraft had reached the royal capital; it appeared Baron Acanth's 1st Air Squadron had ultimately failed. Only... Wasn't this a bit too fast? He hadn't even received word of an engagement erupting between the two air forces. If the Alliance planes had really taken off from near Bister Town, shouldn't the forces stationed at the front have given him at least some warning? Right at that moment, a messenger came running up in a panic. Before the man could even open his mouth to deliver a formal report, Beaufort grabbed him by the shoulder and demanded, "What's happening in the east?" The messenger swallowed hard, his voice trembling. "The—the Heart of Steel! That airship! It has appeared directly due east of us!" Beaufort froze. Midal, standing beside him, was equally stunned. Staring at the panicked messenger, Midal pressed urgently, "The Heart of Steel?! Are you certain it's the Heart of Steel?" "I'm certain!" The messenger nodded vigorously, his voice shaking. "More than one outpost spotted it!" With multiple outposts confirming the sighting simultaneously, there was no mistaking it. That Heart of Steel might have already crossed the border of Oasis 2, putting it at most two hundred kilometers from the royal capital! In reality, it could be even closer! Beaufort's brow furrowed, a grim solemnity washing over his features. "It seems they intend to use that airship to bomb us..." He had heard of the Heart of Steel. Word was that ordinary anti-aircraft guns couldn't do a thing to it. However, such an airborne leviathan was not entirely invulnerable. As long as they found a way to curtail its mobility, even if they couldn't destroy it on short notice, they could still render it useless. For instance, deploying dense arrays of balloons and steel cables across the airship's intended flight path... A long time ago, Griffin had ordered the formation of two specialized "balloon units" specifically to deal with that behemoth. Unfortunately, the Alliance had always been cautious, never allowing the airship to push forward unassisted; instead, it had advanced steadily behind their ground assault forces. Why had it suddenly broken routine this time? "Sending an airship deep into enemy territory on its own... Have they lost their minds?" Midal muttered, his eyes wide with incredulity. Rather than a tactical blunder... He leaned toward believing it was a calculated gamble on their enemy's part. *** There was one thing Midal had guessed correctly. Pushing the Heart of Steel into Oasis 2 against standard protocol was indeed a deliberate strategic gamble by Alliance high command. Yet to Chu Guang's surprise, Griffin's reaction had been a fraction faster than anticipated. Having penetrated less than a hundred kilometers into Oasis 2, they had already collided with Griffin's "balloon array." Balloons trailing steel cables rose from the ground under cover of darkness, drifting slowly through the clouds bathed in tracer fire descending from above. These balloons were partitioned internally and reinforced externally with thin metal plating. Even if struck by machine-gun fire or high-explosive shells, they would only suffer localized damage, retaining most of their buoyant lift. Multiple balloons linked by steel cables ascended side by side, interconnected by finer crisscrossing wires to form a skirt-like curtain of steel cables. Although the crew aboard the Heart of Steel spotted the situation on the ground immediately, it was already too late to decelerate. They could only cut power to the propellers to prevent the cables from tangling in the blades. Hundreds of balloons gathered like massive soap bubbles around the Heart of Steel, which resembled a gargantuan soap bubble itself. With its engines shut down, the Heart of Steel continued gliding forward on momentum, though its speed had dropped considerably. The propellers, restrained by steel cables, creaked and quivered in the biting cold wind. Looking at the balloons hovering outside the bridge's floor-to-ceiling windows, Chu Guang's face registered brief surprise, which quickly gave way to a smile of approval. "...Not bad. You managed to learn this trick from us." Back during the battle for Ruigu City, using a dense barrage balloon array to capture the Heart of Steel had originally been one of the Alliance command's contingency plans. Slow-moving balloons were capable of penetrating the Heart of Steel's deflector shield, and the wires suspended between them could foul the propellers. Given a sufficient number of balloons, the Heart of Steel's sluggish maneuverability made it virtually impossible to turn or adjust speed in time to evade. Yet due to a confluence of factors, that envisioned plan had ultimately been shelved. The foremost reason had been a lack of time; there hadn't been enough time to prepare an adequate supply of barrage balloons before the Heart of Steel could withdraw. Another reason was that balloons could only rob the Heart of Steel of its mobility—they could neither destroy it nor neutralize its formidable firepower. Compared to the cost incurred, the potential payoff had simply been too marginal! Once the airship stabilized, Chu Guang pulled his gaze back from the window and turned toward the young man serving as acting captain. "Report damages." After checking in with the crew, the acting captain replied at once, "The propellers on both sides are fouled by cables... but neither is broken!" "Roughly how long to clear them?" "Within twelve hours!" Twelve hours... Chu Guang glanced at the map on the holographic display, confirmed the distance from their current position to the royal capital, nodded slowly, and issued his next orders. "Drop the anchor chains!" "Furthermore, scramble the carrier aircraft to coordinate with the artillery section in covering the Storm Corps' ground deployment!" The acting captain snapped to attention and saluted. "Understood!" Following Chu Guang's command, twenty W-2 attack planes took off from the deck, skirting around the balloons encircling the airship to drop flares over sectors where enemy forces might be lurking. At the same time, the massive anchor chains dropped heavily, slamming into the plains beneath the airship. After dragging along the ground for a short distance, they brought the vessel to a steady halt. Guided by the flares, the gunners in the airship's broadside casemates promptly opened fire on the ground, unleashing ferocious salvos at the enemy units that had released the balloons. Within moments, over a dozen trucks were reduced to twisted scrap under the barrage of 155mm shells. Simultaneously, the Storm Corps deployed methodically to the ground via the airship's cargo lifts, infiltrating the Falcon Kingdom's interior in company-sized formations to begin the operation codenamed "Retribution." Though an hour ahead of the original schedule, this minor hitch had zero impact on the execution of the broader plan. When drafting the operation, the Army Command had already factored in the possibility of the airship losing mobility—they had even accounted for the worst-case scenario where the vessel was entirely disabled. Compared to that, a twelve-hour delay and a discrepancy of a dozen-odd kilometers were hardly worth fretting over. Everything was proceeding in an orderly fashion. Meanwhile, the Falcon Kingdom and the Legion were almost certainly still in the dark regarding the Alliance's true strategic intent, assuming the threat was limited to an air raid or a strike on the capital. Clutching the handrail along the bulkhead with both hands, Maclen finally steadied himself. Though somewhat disheveled from the brief turbulence, seeing his hated captor suffer a setback tasted as sweet as honey. Basking in schadenfreude, he couldn't resist a sarcastic sneer. "...Heh. Even if barbarians learn to use the tools of civilized men, they remain barbarians at heart. Operating deep in enemy territory without ground support—I have to hand it to you for having the audacity." "Oh?" Chu Guang cast him a look of surprise. Well, look at that. So you knew all along? However, Maclen clearly misunderstood the look, assuming Chu Guang was shocked by the Legion's cunning tactics, and the smug smirk on his lips grew even more blatant. "...So long as Griffin isn't an utter fool, he would obviously be on guard against your airship. I thought you would drop your ground forces the moment you entered Oasis 2. It turns out you're nothing special after all." "I admit I was somewhat surprised. We all thought that even if Griffin prepared countermeasures, it would be difficult for him to halt us before we were within fifty kilometers of the royal capital... Yet his reaction was a dozen kilometers ahead of our estimates." Paying no heed to Maclen's mocking tone, Chu Guang paused for a moment, a trace of disappointment surfacing on his face. "Still, I'm a bit let down. I thought you people would have a more astonishing countermeasure... I never expected your trump card to be nothing more than a bunch of balloons." Since the war was wrapping up anyway, probing the Legion's remaining hand wasn't a bad idea; it would serve as good preparation should future conflicts arise. He had originally hoped to see what sort of trump card Griffin had saved for the Heart of Steel, only to find it was a mere wall of balloons. All that cautious maneuvering beforehand had been for nothing. Maclen flushed red, clearly wanting to retort, but realizing the man might be baiting him for intel, he held his tongue. "Hmph... Does dealing with you require formidable weaponry? Once this thing loses its mobility, it's nothing more than a sitting duck." Chu Guang looked at him with feigned astonishment. "So you knew." Maclen froze, failing to catch the implication at first. But the realization struck him a heartbeat later, and his face instantly darkened to the color of pig liver. His lips trembled, but he was too choked with fury and humiliation to utter a single word. Savory amusement glinted in Chu Guang's eyes as he watched the splendid transformation of expressions. He teased, "I thought you'd completely forgotten what happened at Ruigu City. Turns out you just hadn't recalled it in time." Finode averted his eyes, unable to bear the spectacle. To be humiliated so thoroughly by the enemy... Was this man truly his General Maclen? Ignoring the apoplectic Maclen, Chu Guang turned his gaze toward the sprawling expanse of balloons and the sea of clouds beyond the bridge. The Storm Corps had completed its deployment. Acting on intelligence gathered by the Skeleton Corps from Bister Town, they would sabotage the Falcon Kingdom's vital road networks and industrial installations. The Goblin Corps stationed at Bister Town would coordinate with their actions; he had deployed an ample number of W-2 ground-attack aircraft and one-hundred-kilogram aerial bombs there. They were confident in their ability to reduce the Falcon Kingdom's industrial gains and infrastructure to rubble, ensuring they could not recover for a decade, forcing them to remember this lesson in their very bones. As for the "air raid" on Falcon City... He had entrusted that to the Alliance's ultimate trump card—the Burning Corps. Those Awakened players, fully equipped with exoskeletons, would deal a crushing blow to the poorly supplied Retinue Army soldiers who could barely muster a handful of automatic weapons, delivering the final coup de grâce to this war. A faint smile touched the corners of Chu Guang's mouth. "Now, the rest is up to you." *** At the same time. On the flight deck of the Heart of Steel, bitter, icy gusts whistled past. Staring at Kuang Feng sitting in the cockpit, and then at this aircraft that possessed little more than a windshield and couldn't even fully close its canopy, Lao Bai—clad in his Light Cavalry exoskeleton—stood dumbfounded for a long while before asking cautiously: "Are you... sure you can handle this?" Kuang Feng, hands resting on the control stick, looked puzzled. "Handle what?" Lao Bai gave a wry, helpless laugh. "No, look... bro, it's not that I don't trust you, but I just want to ask... when did you learn how to fly a plane?" It was one thing for Mosquito to know how to fly. That guy had died countless times and crashed just as often to get there. But you, an Intelligence-type player who had probably never even touched an airplane before—since when did you know how to pilot one of these things?! Kuang Feng looked back at Lao Bai, who was lingering outside the cockpit, baffled. After a long pause, he countered, "When did I ever say I knew how to fly?" Lao Bai: "???" Ye Shi, grinning cheekily from the machine gun seat, chimed in, "Don't listen to Kuang Feng's bullshit. We actually practiced while you weren't around, flew a few times! This thing really isn't as hard as you think." Lao Bai couldn't help but ask, "How many times?" Kuang Feng thought about it and replied, "Probably three times." Lao Bai: "..." "Trust me, bro," Kuang Feng said, giving a thumbs-up and putting on his most dependable expression. "Solid as a rock!" Meeting that dead-serious gaze, Lao Bai fell silent for a long moment. Finally, he sighed and stepped into the open-top cockpit. "Fine..." At worst, it was just a life. He had already saved his progress before coming aboard. Dying was just dying; the only shame would be losing the Light Cavalry exoskeleton worth ten thousand silver coins. Examining the spartan layout of the cabin, Lao Bai felt an uneasy prickle in the back of his mind. He asked cautiously, "Is this another one of Mosquito's concoctions?" Kuang Feng answered concisely, "It's the W-1A, basically an improved variant of the W-1. Now one plane can seat three, and field tests showed overloading it by one passenger isn't much of an issue. You were in the rear so you probably missed it, but we only got our hands on this thing a couple of days ago ourselves." So it was a modification of the W-1. No wonder they managed to assemble so many of them. Lao Bai glanced back at the dark flock of aircraft parked across the flight deck, somehow not feeling surprised in the slightest. Still, the bizarre profile of these planes filled him with an ominous foreboding. Although he had reached the front a few days prior, he had only boarded the Heart of Steel today. Kuang Feng had been serving as acting corps commander all this while, so Kuang Feng was naturally in command of this operation as well. Even so, Lao Bai had carefully reviewed the mission briefing before the operation began. Under the cover of the Goblin Corps, they would ride gliders to punch through Falcon City's anti-aircraft fire, landing in the urban area alongside the aerial bombs. With the support of aerial units, they would storm and seize the Falcon City palace... However, he had assumed that pilots from the Goblin Corps would fly transport planes to drop them at their destination. He hadn't expected them to be piloting the transports themselves. Though confident Kuang Feng wouldn't deliberately screw him over, and knowing the boys wouldn't joke about such a crucial mission, Lao Bai still asked with abundant caution: "So this W-1A... what exactly did they modify?" Kuang Feng replied casually, "Lengthened the fuselage and wingspan, removed the engine." "Oh..." Lao Bai, knowing little about aviation, nodded blankly. But a second later, a jolt shot through his brain. "Wait, the hell did they remove?!" Kuang Feng didn't answer. Instead, he looked outside the cockpit toward several Strength-type players tagging along with the airship for mission points, flashing them an "OK" sign. "Wind speed looks good, ready for launch!" A newbie grinned, flashed an "OK" gesture back, and promptly pulled out a lighter, flicking it to ignite two forearm-thick rockets mounted to the glider's tail. Scorching plumes of exhaust erupted, and the massive thrust propelled the lightweight glider forward. The shuddering wings sent Lao Bai's heart straight into his throat. "Holy shit?! You're doing this for real?!" Compared to riding this deathtrap, he would rather parachute! Yet unlike him, Kuang Feng's eyes burned with boundless excitement, his usually stoic expression flashing with an uncharacteristic madness. He had never done anything this thrilling before. And he was doing it with his best bros— "Trust me, I did the math... We'll make it." Pulling down the visor of his helmet, he gripped the control stick tightly with both hands. "Hold tight!"