Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“Although I know none of you are soldiers, and that there is currently a group of people from the First Army reserve force and the Second Army undergoing steam-powered truck driving training, time does not wait for people.” Iron Axe’s stable gaze swept over everyone. “As you are the first group to pass the test with outstanding results, you are likely excellent yourselves, and should be more than qualified for taking on this mission.
“The objectives of the mission is very simple.” He walked before a map laid flat on the table, and moved a pawn from the Kingdom of Dawn to a black line in the eastern region of the Kingdom of Wolfheart. “The central checkpoint is about one hundred and fifty kilometers from here, all you have to do is drive the people and goods on the truck here, wait until they finish their attack, and then bring them back. You will stop for about half an hour, if you’re lucky, they might not even encounter the enemy.”
Iron Axe paused.
The crowd stirred.
After all, his final sentence also meant that if they weren’t lucky, they would encounter demons.
After a waiting for a moment, the commander-in-chief continued, “Of course, the First Army will still be the ones responsible for the fighting, all you have to do is concentrate on driving. Ten trucks in total have arrived at Cage Mountain, according to the plan, only four to five trucks are required for the job, thus, we will select members through recruitment as per the tradition of the Administrative Office.”
“For each return trip from the front line, the convoy will receive an additional remuneration of value that is triple their salary. This remuneration will be handed out by the First Army and is unrelated to the salary given out by the Administrative Office. Now then… those who are willing to undertake this job please take a step forward.”
Farrina took a step forward without hesitation.
To her surprise, all the truck units chose to undertake the job, only that they did not make the decision as quickly as she did.
Her original aim of coming was to go to the front line and see demons for herself. Because she was once a member of the Judgment Army, she was already used to going onto the battlefield, but the others were different—not taking their identities as drivers into account, most of them were just free civilians from Neverwinter.
They undeniably had great trust in the First Army to make such a decision.
Iron Axe very quickly selected five vehicle units according to who stepped out first. The No. 2 Vehicle unit that Farrina was in was also selected.
“We’ll leave them to you.” The commander-in-chief looked at Van’er. “After sunrise tomorrow, the battle officially begins!”
…
“I keep feeling uneasy,” Agatha said in a low voice after all the drivers had left the command post. “The number of people setting out is small yet they would need to have the perfect cooperation of the entire army. Most of the drivers are also normal city folk, and only had less than a day to practice, isn’t it too hasty to make such arrangements?”
At least she now knew what the Pearl of the Northern Region meant by ‘ultra fast.’ Just by looking at the schedule, there certainly was an extremely high chance that their plan would succeed.
The simple hard road that they had repaired previously for migration had now become the foundation of their counterattack. Even if its width, thickness and construction quality couldn’t compare with the construction of main roads, it was far better than the gravel or dirt paths. If they took a step further and limited the load on the trucks, the vehicles could go very fast.
And in the two hundred kilometer return trip, the cube-powered truck’s average speed was far higher than any cavalry—even if the the rider ignored the expense of the horses and alternated between two horses as they traveled, they would still take two days. On the other hand, the trucks would be able to do it in six to eight hours, and they could carry the heavy equipment needed by the counterattack unit.
The only problem was, that not only did they need to hide First Army soldiers in it, they also involved normal non combat civilians, and something unexpected could happen.
“This battle certainly does harbor more unpredictability, but this is insignificant when you take the benefits in to account,” Edith said frankly. “The demons can reallocate the Fortress-like Monstrous Beasts at any time. Compared to continuing to wait for the right time, it is better to take advantage of the present.”
“I think the enemies wouldn’t expect humans to launch a sudden counterattack less than a day after they lost Sedimentation Bay. The most likely result of failure is returning without accomplishing what we wanted, while success will cause the following movements of the demons to suffer a constant setback; the right choice is clear. Moreover, war is full of unpredictability itself, sometimes a plan that looks utterly safe can be broken apart upon a tiny coincidence.” She smiled. “So… let’s pray to the goddess of luck to stand on our side.”
…
There was light wind and snow at seven o’clock the following morning.
Under the dull and gray sky, five steam-powered trucks lined up in a long line and slowly drove out of the silent campsite toward the east.
Different to when they were transporting goods, a grayish-white cloth covered the trucks’ trunks. From afar, they looked like moving mounds of snow. Among them, two trucks were dragging 152mm Longsong Cannons, the long black barrel blended into the truck, and only if one went closer would they notice the faint cool light refracted outwards from the hydraulic buffer.
Two hours later, twenty-five biplanes rose into the sky from the Thorn Town landing field, and under the lead of ‘Seagull’ headed towards the target battlefield. Unlike their normal battles, the Aerial Knights didn’t choose the lower skies where it was easier to locate the enemy, but entered the clouds from the very beginning, flying through the gaps of the clouds.
This meant that they lost a large portion of their view, and apart from a compass, the only thing they were guided by was the figure of ‘Seagull’ which occasionally disappeared and reappeared among the clouds. Once a biplane was lost, it would be basically impossible to find the group again. In order to avoid getting lost, everybody paid full attention, and apart from the roar of the engine, there wasn’t the sound of a single conversation within the passenger compartment.
At the same time, Lightning and Maggie appeared in the sky above the battlefield and searched for potential scouting demons.
Two hours and fifteen minutes after the mission began. the first accident occurred in the convoy. Because of the poor road conditions, the No. 4 Truck unit broke down when crossing a ditch. After the passengers switched vehicles, the convoy continued on their way, only leaving behind the fault crew to fix the malfunction by themselves.
Half an hour later, an accident also happened to the Aerial Knights. When flying above a layer of clouds two biplanes lost sight of the planes in in front of them, and could only change direction and return according to the instructions that were given before they set off. In the return journey afterwards, they all had no choice but to leave the clouds.
Fortunately, everything went well afterwards.
After three hours and six minutes, the steam-powered truck convoy was the first to reach the destination.
“My god, Farrina…” Joe leaned forward and muttered.
“Ah, I see it.” Farrina stopped the truck stably and calmly stared to the side of the driver’s compartment—through the windshield, she saw a scaffold that looked like a skeleton erected on the mountain top in the distance. From her view it was only a third of the size of her fingertip, but when taking the distance into account, she could imagine what an enormous monstrosity it actually was.
Dense crimson mist enshrouded the skeleton, almost covering the entire mountain peak, starkly contrasting with the snow scenery around it.
That was certainly not something created by man.
Just by looking at it, she could feel a something cold rising in her stomach.
Farrina involuntary squeezed the steering wheel.
Without question, demons had already entered their world.
