Deep into the Nevada Desert, a row of desert-camouflaged SUVs came from afar, avoided two hills covered by loess, and stopped outside a military base under the hills. The rusty iron gate looked as if it had been deserted for many years. By the amount of sand trapped under the tarp, it appeared that no one had visited this place for a long time.
When the convoy approached the military base, the vehicles began to slow down.
At this moment, a gust of wind that carried sand blew by. In just a blink of an eye, soldiers wearing desert camouflage stood around the convoy. They raised their rifles and surrounded the SUVs.
The convoy stopped.
The door of the second SUV opened and a military boot stepped onto the ground. He showed his identity card to the nearest soldier. The soldier didn’t make any movement except for a red light that flashed in the center of the tactical eyepiece under the brim of his Bennie’s hat.
After the soldier identified the code on the graphene card, the rifles pointed at the convoy all lowered. Colonel Ross put away his graphene card, narrowed his eyes, scanned the group of soldiers, and said.
“Where is Colonel McCarthy, get him to see me.”
“Here.” Colonel McCarthy, who wore a beret, stepped out and walked up to the officer. He raised his hand and performed a standard military salute.
Although the two were both colonels in military ranks, one was serving in the Department of Defense while the other was a commissioned officer of the frontline forces. Colonel Ross came here with the order of the Department of Defense and could be considered as his superior. Therefore, he had no problem saluting first.
Colonel Ross responded with a salute, then looked at the military base behind him and nodded.
“How is the preparation?”
“The West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center is already under our control, and the only insider is also under our control,” McCarthy replied seriously.
“Very good.” Colonel Ross nodded and stared at McCarthy. Then he paused for a moment before he continued, “Congress has already discussed this matter. Since those stubborn conservative forces are ready to stop us from moving into the future, then we will sweep them into the tomb of history together with the rubbish of the wasteland. Your task now is to include the entire California in the coverage of the weather weapon and implement an indiscriminate strategic strike.”
“Roger,” Colonel McCarthy replied in a cold and emotionless state.
“The combat order has been issued. I want to know when this thing will be ready.” Colonel Ross said while he raised his chin and looked at the alloy door inlaid on the side of the hill behind the military base.
“It depends on when the fuel rods will be delivered.” Colonel McCarthy then asked, “How is the dismantling of that batch of nuclear weapons?”
“A hundred 20mm nuclear fusion cores have been removed and they will be sent here soon,” Colonel Ross responded.
“That’s enough.” The upturned corner of his mouth showed cruelness and viciousness, Colonel McCarthy said, “A category six hurricane will be more than enough to shred their defense-”
Before he could finish his sentence, a scream suddenly came from the sky.
The two of them were taken aback by the noise and looked up.
However, just halfway through the motion, shrapnel blasted and dazzling light exploded. Dark smoke then diffused at the entrance of the military base along with the fire. Unprepared, the two soldiers who stood next to the checkpoint were blown to pieces by the incoming shells. One of them entered into a coma and was immediately in an undetermined state.
McCarthy reflexively took two steps back, raised his sleeves to cover his face, and stared at the blown checkpoint, then his pupils suddenly constricted.
Mortars!
“ENEMY ATTACK!”
“SPREAD OUT! HURRY, HURRY!”
“This is Team Red Arrow. The position of the mortar has been calculated, we are heading to the target area…”
Without the slightest warning, as the first shell exploded, the subsequent shells exploded near the convoy like countless beans being scattered down.
When the first shell arrived, all USN soldiers started to move like in sync gears. Soldiers in desert camouflage rushed to the side of the road and held onto their rifle as they laid down on the spot behind covers. The SUVs quickly reversed and spread out; half of the SUVs, that carried supplies, drove into the military base. The other half, which carried soldiers, and two armored vehicles rushed out of the military base and headed for the direction where the shells came from.
…
“Haha! FIRE!”
With one foot on a desert-colored motorcycle, the man in a cowboy hat laughed hysterically while he looked at the explosions with his binoculars. The scene of enemies fleeing under his bombardment sparked an immense amount of joy in his mind.
In the open space next to him, soldiers dressed as cowboys took the mortar shells from the back of the motorcycles, threw them to the comrades holding the mortar, and stuffed them into the thick barrel.
The Rangers, as a purely motorized artillery unit, was the trump card of the militia organization “Minuteman”. Although they relied on old-fashioned fuel-burning motorcycles as a means of transportation, the performance of this old-fashioned machinery on wasteland, especially in the desert, was unexpectedly reliable. Moreover, synthetic oil was much easier to obtain than nuclear batteries, and the machine was also not affected by EMP weapons. With the excellent firepower of 60mm electromagnetic mortars, the Rangers had ravaged the California wasteland for more than a decade, frightening countless predators and mutated human tribes.
“They are coming here,” another cowboy crouched behind a rock said as he observed the convoy moving along with a trail of dust with his binoculars, “Tell NAC they can start!”
“ROGER!”
No notification was required at all.
When the cowboy ran to the motorcycle and sent the message, the NAC Expeditionary Force and the National Guard who were flanking nearby had already moved.
Without any warning, dozens of anti-tank rockets sprang out from behind the haystack and went straight to the USN military convoy moving to the Ranger artillery position. Two SUVs were shot on the side and turned into exploding fireballs. The two armored vehicles at the back were hit directly and stalled on the road. In a split second, the USN convoy had completely lost its momentum.
Knowing that they were ambushed, USN soldiers jumped out of the vehicles one after another and scattered to look for cover. However, the previous rockets were only the beginning. A group of soldiers also armed with kinetic skeleton flanked from behind the dunes. The rifle in their hands spewed out fearsome bullets. With the support of power armors, they surrounded the completely stalled convoy.
“I’M HIT! MEDIC!”
“SH*T! THIS IS TEAM RED ARROW! WE NEED REINFORCEMENT! I REPEAT, WE AHHHHHHH-”
There was no reinforcement.
Just half a minute ago, countless rockets fell from above and instantly engulfed the abandoned military base.
The tumbling balls of flame dyed the gray-yellow earth into a dark hell, and a pungent burnt smell lingered around the entire battlefield. Most of the USN soldiers died under the barrage of Fireball-1. While a few survived, under the siege of the NAC ground troops, the remaining soldiers were forced to retreat to the cave.
Everything happened so suddenly that neither Colonel McCarthy nor Colonel Ross could react.
When they were about to ask for help from the fleet, they found that all communication equipment had failed. It turned out that during the rocket barrage, NAC not only used high-explosive and incendiary warheads, but also the most insidious EMP warheads…
