Chapter 11

The rolling mushroom cloud rose hundreds of meters high in an instant. The orange cloud shrunk inward abruptly. Its color turned white in the next instant. It radiated light and heat like a mini sun. The white fireball exploded with might greater than before. A gigantic white mushroom cloud rose up the sky again.
“Should I call this beautiful or terrifying?” Zheng took off the sunglasses. He noticed his body was able to withstand the bright white light without the sunglasses. It was a bit glaring but bearable. He looked straight into the white flame with his bare eyes, dazzled by the rapidly changing forms of the cloud.

Zheng was having a bad feeling from what Xuan had just said. Based on Xuan’s personality, he wouldn’t do or say anything needless. If Xuan wasn’t referring to something then there was a new scheme targeting him.

(It makes me worry no matter how I see this. Would be good if HongLu’s here. He could at least deduce what Xuan is thinking… How is it going at their side? Can the three of them safely lure away the Decepticons? Can HongLu’s plan succeed? Has Xuan really not noticed it?) Zheng pondered but his thoughts became a mess and he had to stop thinking. He put his attention toward the unique scene in front. Explosion from the most powerful nuclear bombs was a unique sight in some sense.

Two more intercontinental nuclear missiles struck the ruin that was St. Louis within the next hour. That endless mushroom cloud, the burning flame and shockwaves turned this place into a white colored hell. The brightness was not that far away from that of the sun. They couldn’t see through this light into the fortress inside. The three hydrogen bombs were indeed extremely powerful. Stones brought up by the gales flew with the force of bullets. The team had to hide behind objects and wait for the gales to weaken.

The gales died down as time as time passed. The incoming wind still carried an intense heatwave. Once the heatwave also died down, Lan said in a low voice. “Something’s off, Zheng. A lot of American troops and tanks are marching from the west toward the center of explosion. Were these troops gathered there the whole time?”

“An army?” Zheng was surprised. He looked to Xuan. “Is it your plan to let the army attack the fortress once the nuclear strikes are over? It’s a good thing for us whether they could obtain the AllSpark or not. It takes less effort to seize the AllSpark from the military or they could expend the forces of the Decepticons and help us.”

Xuan shook his head. “First, this isn’t my plan. Second, a thousand normal robots can wipe off this army. They won’t kill off a large number of robots as you imagined. So…”

“So?”

On the other side of St. Louis, the other group was watching the American army march toward the fortress. The troops wore biohazard suits. The tanks drove in the center of the army. There were also military trucks and motorbikes. The American army suffered huge losses in this disaster but their old stockpile of military vehicles could still arm a decent army.

“An army of several hundred thousands attacking one area appear mighty but the power of their weapons… especially without air support could only attract the attention of most of the robots. Relying on them to take out robots in a large quantity isn’t going to happen.” HongLu wasn’t looking well.

Kampa nodded. “The American military is powerful but that is built on the basis of the quality of their soldiers and top of the line equipment. When the equipment declined by so many generations, their strength is greatly affected. Human wave attacks are useless against robots.”

HongLu nodded. “Right. The American army alone isn’t a safe bet. We should follow them into the fortress. We can lure a few more robots away while they battled the robots.” HongLu got up and was going to walk out from their hiding place.

YinKong suddenly grabbed a hold of him. “No. We can’t leave here until after the American army entered the fortress.”

HongLu was surprised. “Oh? Why? What’s wrong with sneaking behind them?”

“Xuan said to me when he handed me the CD.” YinKong said calmly. “If you took the CD away and set up the American army to march into the fortress, I will have to stop you from following them until the whole army entered the fortress.”

HongLu’s mind was lost for a moment and asked. “Why didn’t you tell me what Xuan said beforehand?”

YinKong gave him a good look. “I also didn’t tell Xuan your plan. I said I won’t help either of you.”

HongLu had no energy to listen to what she say anymore. He crouched and grabbed the hair in front of his forehead as he pondered.

(That means he knew I would scheme the American army since the very beginning? Where did he get such confidence? And why did he have YinKong stop me from following the army? If I am in the same situation, if I knew he would set up the American army to attack the fortress after three hydrogen bombs struck the place, a lot of the normal robots have been destroyed by this point, the only thing I would do is…) HongLu’s expression changed.

He raised his head at once and looked to the sky. Nothing. Yet, he still searched in panic. After quite some time, he dropped to the floor, looking defeated. “Sigh. It isn’t here yet but by the time the American army reach the fortress, the final strike will come. Damn it. I helped him complete the final step. Couldn’t he smell the scent of blood on his hands from wiping off several hundred thousand people at once?”

Kampa and YinKong seemed confused. Kampa asked. “What happened? Isn’t your plan going well? Even though the army’s strength declined but they could still hold off a lot of robots. Is there a flaw in the plan?”

HongLu said, a little depressed. “The biggest flaw is their strength is too low. They could hold the robots only for a limited time and couldn’t destroy that many robots. If anything goes wrong, the other group will get sandwiched by robots from two sides. This isn’t allowed to happen. Both Xuan and I speculated the Decepticons have a barrier like technology. Can the hydrogen bombs break the barrier? Can the bombs break the core defense after tearing apart the steel fortress? Nuclear bombs are powerful but even humans have created shelters, so not to mention the aliens with more advanced technologies. The only way to actually kill off the robots in large number is to strike them when they opened up their defense system to fight the human army.”

Kampa and YinKong’s expressions also changed. Even someone like YinKong seemed rather shocked. However, they felt this was the kind of means Xuan would use. Apathetic. And only people like Xuan would come up with such plans.

The American army marched into the ruin that was St. Louis. HongLu’s group could hear the explosions and gunfire coming from the city center. The battle became increasingly intense and continued for ten minutes. Suddenly, another intercontinental nuclear missile crossed the sky and flew toward the center of the battlefield as though to prove what HongLu just said. Its flight merely took a few minutes. The missile did not explode above the city like the three before. It drove right into the ground and then a deafening explosion followed.

“That’s basically the current situation. This hydrogen bomb exploded after it entered the ground. Its goal is to destroy the extremely tough military infrastructure. I believe the robots are reduced to a point where we can take. Rest for three hours. We can attack once the temperature cools.”

Xuan muttered as he looked out at the dust that was brought up hundreds of meters in the sky. He ignored Zheng who was looking at him with the eyes of a murderer and the rest of the members who were utterly shocked. The hundreds of thousands of the American army were erased from the Earth in an instant.

“Can I dirty my hands… in order to survive?” Zheng once asked himself. His answer was he could dirty his hands but not his heart.

“Can I dirty my heart… in order to survive?”

Once a person resorted to any means necessary in order to survive, would he still be the same person? If he could abandon his comrades and live by standing on their dead bodies, or seize points and rewards from the newbies like those teams he encounter, would he still be himself at that point?

So he could not dirty his heart in order to survive. He would not be the same person once his heart strayed away. If he wasn’t him anymore, what difference was it from dying?

Yet, could he dirty his hands for the people he cared?

Zheng was originally furious. He wanted to beat Xuan up terribly. He could stand the typical schemes. There was no way to avoid all casualty in a war. However, gloom and guilt covered his heart when hundreds of thousands of people were used as bait then killed for just a plan.

Zheng stopped himself from taking pointless actions. It was useless to beat up Xuan who had no sense of pain. The best thing he could do was calm down and think over the upcoming steps.

The truth was his hands were stained with blood since entering this realm. Just like how he killed the troops in Starship Troopers in order to survive. The excuse he gave himself was those troops were going to die anyway. So painless death by him was better than dying to the bugs. But now, there was no more excuse he could find for the death of the soldiers.

“There’s no way to redeem what has already happened. The core of the problem is my lack of power. If I am strong enough to overcome the number of robots, you wouldn’t have to resort to such plan and turn hundreds of thousands of people into baits… I can not accept your methods but I will carry out my duty as the leader, to protect my team and to lead my team to live on.” Zheng sounded bitter, yet determined.

Xuan nodded quietly as he continued to stare at the dust in the sky. After some time passed, he said. “We can enter in approximately half an hour.”

“I won’t hold you accountable for what can’t be reverted. However, I have my principles. If you drag so many innocent people into your plan again, I will still stop you.” Zheng said. He stood up and looked to the distance.

The U.S. was done. The guilt had taken a large part of his mind but he could still see that the U.S. was done after Xuan struck them so hard.

“The civilizations on Earth will likely fall back a hundred years after the robot disaster. However, it might be a good thing for some nations and ethnic groups. When everyone starts at the same starting line and carries the same shame of being weak, the diligence and courage of each nation’s people will decide who could climb to the top.” Lan quietly said from behind.

It seemed like she recovered a little after Zheng actively sought to take to her. Though her tone was still rather indifferent.

Zheng nodded. He estimated the time then stood up. “We will ambush the fortress now. Visibility near the fortress is very low. So Lan will use psyche scan and send the information to each of us. Zero, find a high point on the outer layer of the fortress and snipe with the help of Soul Link. Kill off any robot that is still alive and comes out. Heng, your duty is to protect Zero. Your bow doesn’t work as well in narrow spaces. TengYi, Lan, Xuan, and ChengXiao stay here. WangXia, Gando and I will execute the ambush. Our mission isn’t to kill the robots but to dash inside and obtain the AllSpark.”

Xuan interrupted him. “I will come with you. I made a little breakthrough on using the Lambda Driver. I shouldn’t be far off from you in terms of combat ability.”

Zheng looked at Xuan with surprise. He did not really concur with non combat members participating in a fight directly. However, if Xuan said this, he should be confident with himself. The Lambda Driver was powerful and left a deep impression from its testing back in God’s dimension. Zheng didn’t stop Xuan. He nodded then began running to the center of the explosion.

The dust brought up by the explosion rose hundreds of meters high. Visibility was reduced to less than a hundred meters as the team entered the explosion area. And this number continued to decline as the radiation covered dust fell from the sky. In the end, they could only see up to ten meters. Anything beyond was masked in gray. This did not cause any huge issue though due to the existence of the psyche force user. As they team advanced forward, large amount of ruined metal came into their views. They could make out the original forms of some pieces, mostly metal arms, legs, or parts of a robot, but they did not see any whole robot.

The ground was wiped flat. The remaining structures from St. Louis and the metallic structures built by the Decepticons all disappeared. The ground had cracks and appeared glazed. The heat turned the ground into glass. It was still burning after so much time had passed.

“We are here.” Images from the psyche scan showed a hole several thousand meters wide and nearly a thousand meter in depth in front. What was shocking was a translucent light field deep below the ground. The sight verified Xuan’s speculation that the robots had a barrier like technology. The hydrogen bombs alone could not break open the core of the base and not to mention annihilating the robots.

“Lets… go!” The American army had been killed by the hydrogen bomb but the outer and middle layer of the fortress were also destroyed along with their deaths. Only the core area a thousand meters under the ground remained. It would be lame to let the negative feelings overcome him at this point. Zheng did not mention the army again. He had Zero and Heng stand by on a high point and gave Lan a few advices. Then he stepped onto the Sky Stick and brought the others down.

“Let’s go fight! Feeling terrible right now. I want to let it all out in a fight!” Zheng did not mention the army but he felt a fire burning in his heart. He wanted to find a battlefield and kill a few thousand robots to sooth the fire. As he unsheathed Tiger’s Soul, the adverse aura added to the fire and multiplied the killing intent he had.

The refined Qi covered Tiger’s Soul and reduced the adverse aura by a bit. Zheng did not try to restraint the aura though. All he had at this time was a sea of killing intent. The Sky Stick flew down nearly a thousand meters. As it reached twenty meters from the barrier, Zheng roared then leaped at the barrier. The sword slashed downward. A faint image of a white tiger appeared around him. The sword cut through the barrier and the Sky Stick flew inside.

The other three people heard Zheng shouted. “We are going to put our lives on the line. Xuan, put away the Sky Stick. WangXia, plan plasma bombs over the place. Gando, destroy wreak havoc with all your firepower. Let’s destroy the Decepticon’s base!”