220: Chapter 220 The Iron Hoof Outpost Draws an Arc! Lu Chen Uses City-States as a Barrier

2:31 PM.

Zhou Yuan finished typing the final round of encrypted verification at the transmitter station and slammed his index finger down on the send key.

The device emitted a few short bursts of electrical static, then fell silent in an instant.

"Sent." Zhou Yuan slumped back into his chair and shoved the communicator into his pocket. "The receiving window on Forge's end has been open; he'll see it in two minutes at most."

Lu Chen didn't say a word, his gaze fixed entirely on the console.

The twelfth scan.

The scout vehicle's signal position jumped to five degrees and two minutes north-northwest, a shift of 0.8 degrees since it first appeared on the radar.

At a range of eight kilometers, 0.8 degrees translated to a lateral displacement of about 110 meters.

Those two vehicles were drawing an arc.

They were moving very slowly, creeping eastward along an invisible trajectory.

"City Lord." Zhao Tiezhu spoke up from behind. "Since we've decided not to fight, what do we do now?"

"Wait." Lu Chen replied curtly.

"Wait for what?"

"Wait for him to finish this arc and see which way he turns next." Lu Chen broke it down for him. "The first arc is fixed at eight kilometers; the second will push inward to five or six. The moment he pushes in, the change in direction and speed will allow us to calculate exactly where his search axis is pinned."

"The search axis is the position of The City-State," Zhou Yuan added.

"Correct. If the axis points directly at The City-State, it means that's what he's targeting. If it's off-center, then he's coming for something else."

"Like us." Lin Xiao, sitting nearby, blurted out suddenly.

"Like us." Lu Chen didn't mince words.

Lin Xiao folded his hands, rubbed his knuckles against the back of his hand, and let out a long, heavy sigh.

"City Lord." He lowered his voice. "There are still over twenty thousand people holed up inside The City-State. With the scout vehicle scanning now, if people are running around inside, can passive thermal imaging distinguish human heat signals?"

"From five kilometers away, passive thermal imaging can't distinguish individual human heat signals," Zhou Yuan stepped in. "How massive is The City-State's overall thermal radiation? Human body temperature, set against the temperature difference of the steel walls, counts as nothing but noise at that scale. However,"

He paused.

"However what?" Lin Xiao pressed.

"If a crowd gathers and creates an abnormal heat signal, they might get caught. For instance, if a large group of people moves across the external decks, or if a large hatch is opened."

"That passage the Relocation Team is using to walk from The City-State to Polaris," Lin Wan interjected. "It's exposed. Are people still walking on it this afternoon?"

Several pairs of eyes turned in unison toward Lin Xiao.

His face tightened.

"The 861 people in the third batch arrived at Polaris at 2:00 PM." He licked his dry lips. "There's no one on the passage right now. But back at The City-State, I had originally scheduled the fourth batch to assemble at 4:00 PM."

"Stop." Lu Chen tossed out the word.

"No one can be seen on the passage this afternoon." He laid out the stakes clearly. "The scout vehicle is currently drawing an arc; once the first one is done, it will push inward. By the time it pushes to five or six kilometers, the resolution of the passive thermal imaging will increase significantly. If a few hundred people appear on the open-air passage right now, they'll become a living target."

"The report the scout vehicle brings back will change from 'No Threat' to 'Human Activity'," Zhou Yuan completed the thought.

"Once the main force receives that report, the operational plan might just change from 'Base Building' to 'Assault'," Lu Chen continued the line of reasoning.

Lin Xiao finished listening and slapped his knee.

"I'll go notify The City-State right now. From this afternoon until tomorrow morning, everyone on the external decks is to be pulled inside. Stop the relocation and lock down the passage."

"No need to lock it down," Lu Chen corrected him. "Just close it for this afternoon and tonight. The scout vehicle will finish the two arcs in four to six hours at most; it will be done between 6:00 and 8:00 PM tonight. Once its signal completely disappears from the radar, resume the relocation."

"Done." Lin Xiao activated his communicator, turned to the side, and covered his mouth to relay instructions to The City-State.

Lin Wan opened her notebook and jotted down these points.

Relocation paused, from this afternoon until the scout vehicle leaves. Clear personnel from external decks.

After writing, she looked up at Lu Chen. "City Lord, what about Polaris?"

"Polaris stays put." Lu Chen set the tone. "Keep the engines at idle; don't increase power. Keep the Wide-area Dispersion Generator running; the opponent won't be able to pick out its heat output from five kilometers away. If we turn it off, the ground temperature difference in the 200-meter Snow-Free Zone will change instantly, making it easier to spot."

"What about the lights in the Greenhouse?" Lin Wan asked.

"The Greenhouse is covered by the dome, so the full-spectrum LED light won't leak out," Lu Chen calculated. "But have Song Ya pull all the maintenance curtains on the north side; don't let a single sliver of light show."

"Got it." Lin Wan activated the communicator at her waist and switched to Song Ya's channel.

"Song Ya, are you in the Greenhouse?"

"Yes, I am." The rustling sound of Song Ya rummaging through plastic bags came from the other end.

"Pull all the maintenance curtains on the north side."

"Why?"

"The City Lord's orders. Don't ask why this afternoon."

"Done." Song Ya didn't waste words and hung up immediately.

Lin Wan shoved the communicator back into her pocket and returned her gaze to the console.

2:37 PM.

The scout vehicle's signal position had crept to four degrees and nine minutes north-northwest.

The arc was still extending outward.

Lu Chen held a pencil stub, recording the position readings from each scan in his notebook, marking a series of small black dots on the plan view.

Connected, they formed an arc curving to the east.

The center of the arc pointed directly north of The City-State's remains.

"City Lord." Zhou Yuan leaned over to take a look. "The arc center is pointing at The City-State; it's not off-center."

"Confirmed." Lu Chen threw the pencil onto the table. "It's The City-State he's eyeing."

"With a scrap metal shell as big as The City-State sitting there, he can see it. He can't see us tucked away right next to it." Zhao Tiezhu calculated the odds from the back. "City Lord, this situation is in our favor."

"In our favor." Lu Chen replied.

"But not entirely." He added.

"What do you mean?" Zhao Tiezhu asked.

"Once the scout vehicle finishes these two arcs, it will turn back to report. The report must contain at least three things: target location, target scale, and target threat level." Lu Chen counted on his fingers. "The location and scale are obvious; The City-State is eight hundred meters long and lying right in the middle of the Rustwind Wasteland; it can't be hidden at all. The deadly part is the third item."

"Threat level." Zhou Yuan picked up the thread.

"Right. What is he using to evaluate the threat level?"

"Three criteria." Zhou Yuan quickly flipped through Iron Hoof's intelligence in his mind. "First, whether the target can move. Second, whether the target has effective firepower. Third, whether there are active electromagnetic signals around the target."

"The first one: The City-State is paralyzed, so that's a pass." Lu Chen checked them off one by one. "The second: The City-State still has those 120 cannons mounted on the walls. The scout vehicle can make out the outlines of the barrels from five kilometers away, but it can't be sure if those cannons can still fire."

"How many of The City-State's main cannons are still functional?" He turned his head to look at Lin Xiao.

Lin Xiao had just hung up the communicator and paused for half a second upon hearing this.

"The front wall collapsed long ago, and that row of cannons is completely destroyed. On the sides and the back, there are at most sixty that can still fire." He pondered for a moment. "But the ammunition is bottoming out. For the twelve 180mm main cannons, the shells in the armory don't even add up to a hundred rounds. There's still some stock left for the medium-caliber ones."

"Sixty cannons and a hundred rounds of ammunition—that's not an empty shell." Lu Chen tapped the table. "When the scout vehicle sees these sixty barrels, the threat level will have to be raised."

"How high?" Zhao Tiezhu asked.

"Hard to say." Zhou Yuan shook his head. "The scout vehicle only sees the barrels; it can't see through the ammunition depot. It has to assume the worst and report back based on a fully loaded standard."

"Once the main force receives this report, how will they handle it?" Lin Xiao pressed.

"Sixty fully loaded cannons, plus a paralyzed lv.4 fortress—what does that count for in the eyes of the Iron Hoof Legion?" Lu Chen threw the question to Zhou Yuan.

"Pulling a nail." Zhou Yuan answered quickly. "Spend half a day, use long-range artillery to wash the ground, exhaust The City-State's ammunition, and then move in to gnaw at it."

"Spend half a day pulling a nail." Lu Chen rolled the words on his tongue. "This half-day is the most critical half-day in our degradation window."

He opened his notebook and added two lines under the line "degradation window".

scout vehicle assesses The City-State's threat level: Medium-low.

Main force's likely operational plan: Enter after long-range attrition, follow standard nail-pulling procedure, takes half a day to a day.

He scanned it twice and closed the notebook.

"Lin Xiao."

"Present."

"How many people inside know the truth about the ammunition for those sixty cannons in The City-State?"

"A few core officers in the Staff Department are aware, but the subordinates are all in the dark."

"Then don't let them know." Lu Chen set the tone. "The current appearance of The City-State is exactly how the scout vehicle sees it. 120 barrels standing on the walls—regardless of whether they can still fire, no one is to dismantle or move them. The more barrels there are, the higher the threat level the scout vehicle will report back. The higher the threat level, the longer it will take for the main force to gnaw through The City-State. The longer it takes, the wider our degradation window will be."

Lin Xiao ground this logic over in his mind twice.

"Using The City-State as bait." His throat felt dry.

"As a shield." Lu Chen corrected him. "The City-State is paralyzed there; in the scout vehicle's eyes, there is only The City-State. When the main force presses over, the first thing they'll deal with is The City-State. We, Polaris, are holed up in The City-State's shadow. While they are locked in a death struggle with The City-State, the degradation window will naturally open up."

Lin Xiao sat hunched in the iron chair, silent, his jaw muscles twitching twice.

After five or six seconds.

"Done." He spoke up. "The barrels won't move; they'll stay exactly as they are."

The Cockpit fell silent again.

The scanning line on the console swept across in circles.

2:54 PM.

The scout vehicle's signal had moved to four degrees and one minute north-northwest.

The arc was still trailing outward.

Lu Chen tapped the black dots on his notebook with the tip of his pen.

From 2:17 PM to 2:54 PM, 37 minutes, the position had shifted by about two degrees.

At this pace, it would take over three hours for the first arc to scan the entire 90-degree front. Add the time to push inward to the second arc, plus the scan time for the second arc.

All told: five to six hours.

Between 7:00 and 8:00 PM tonight, the scout vehicle will finish the second arc.

Then turn around and leave.

"Zhou Yuan." Lu Chen spoke.

"Present."

"When the scout vehicle turns around, keep a close eye on the communication channels for me. The second it sends a shortwave report back, capture every bit of it—direction, duration, don't miss a thing."

"Understood."

"Zhao Tiezhu."

"Present."

"Keep the Reconnaissance Platoon suppressed tonight. While the scout vehicle is drawing arcs outside, no one from our side is allowed to take a single step out of Polaris. Have them get fully geared up now, rations ready, and squat in the Storage Area waiting for orders. Once the scout vehicle's signal cuts out, we'll assess the situation and decide whether to go out."

"Understood."

"Lin Wan."

"Present."

"Keep the Greenhouse running as usual, just make sure the north curtains are pulled tight. Grind the flour, let the dough rise. As soon as the scout vehicle clears out tonight, resume the fourth batch of relocation."

"Got it."

Lu Chen turned his chair back to face the console directly.

Those two light spots were still creeping along the arc, unhurriedly.

He picked up his pen and added two lines at the bottom of the notebook.

scout vehicle expected to finish scanning between 7:00 and 8:00 PM tonight.

Polaris in full ship silence, waiting for it to leave.