98: Chapter 99 Seven Hundred Kilometers, Twelve Hours

Li Cang stared at the tactical map for ten seconds.

The location of Manila Fortress flashed with a red alert marker on the map. It was seven hundred kilometers from the base. The Tracking Squad's signal strength was only 12%, intermittent and liable to cut out completely at any moment.

He listened to the distress signal once more.

"...Manila Fortress... ambush... Sun Warriors... at least forty people... heavy equipment... surrounded... requesting reinforcements..."

TW-078's voice. Very steady.

He swiped his finger across the map to bring up distance and time calculations.

Seven hundred kilometers. A Thunder Warrior's standard marching speed while fully armed was about thirty kilometers per hour; even without eating, drinking, or resting, it would take twenty-three hours.

Too slow.

He flipped through the list of transport vehicles. There were a few captured Pan-Pacific military trucks in the base that were in decent condition.

The trucks' speed was about sixty kilometers per hour, but the road conditions were poor—highways plowed by artillery fire, half-collapsed bridges, scorched jungles—the actual speed might only be forty to fifty.

That calculated to about fourteen to seventeen hours.

Could the Tracking Squad hold out for seventeen hours?

Twenty-nine men surrounded by over forty Sun Warriors, limited ammunition, jammed communications, and a not-quite-dead walking vehicle underground.

It was hard to say.

"We can't wait," Li Cang said.

He opened the troop management panel and began selecting soldiers.

Who should he send?

The answer to that question was actually quite simple.

C-19.

SS-rank, 121 points, five trait slots full—the strongest individual combat power in the entire legion. If the battle at Manila Fortress was to be resolved in the shortest time possible, C-19 was the only choice.

But C-19 was also the most precious piece in his hand.

Li Cang's finger hovered over C-19's name. If something happened to C-19 at Manila Fortress, the core command system of the entire legion would collapse.

But the twenty-nine lives of the Tracking Squad were also lives. Moreover, if the Sun Warriors at Manila Fortress weren't wiped out, they would be a ticking time bomb.

"C-19." He tapped the name on the panel. "Deploy."

Then came the troop allocation.

Three hundred and twenty-one people remained at the base. He couldn't take them all as the base needed defensive forces, but he couldn't take too few either, as the enemy had at least forty Sun Warriors plus heavy equipment.

He did the math.

Take one hundred men. C-19 in command. Fifteen A-rank veterans plus eighty-five B-rank standard soldiers. The remaining two hundred and twenty-one would stay to guard the base.

One hundred against forty, plus C-19's personal combat power, should be enough.

But there was one more issue.

Corvin.

Li Cang's finger hovered over Corvin's name.

Corvin was an A-rank veteran with 78 points, possessing rich combat experience and a tacit understanding with C-19. Bringing him along would raise the reinforcement force's overall combat power by a level.

But Corvin's genetic collapse level had already reached 43%, and it was still rising every day.

The improved stabilizer was ready. It was in the production slot next to the console, completed twenty-four hours ago, but he hadn't had time to use it.

Li Cang glanced at the silver-gray injector in the production slot, then at Corvin's collapse level figure.

The improved stabilizer could reduce the collapse rate from 1% per day to 0.2% per day, but it couldn't lower the existing collapse level. A 43% collapse level meant the foundation upgrade success rate was only 20%.

Furthermore, the stabilizer required six to eight hours after injection to take full effect. If injected now, the medication would stabilize just as the reinforcement force reached Manila Fortress.

But a 43% collapse level was itself a ticking time bomb. High-intensity combat would accelerate genetic collapse.

Li Cang closed his eyes and thought for three seconds.

Then he crossed Corvin's name off the deployment list.

"You stay," he said to the panel, though Corvin couldn't hear him.

Save his life first. There would be plenty of battles to fight later.

But the stabilizer couldn't wait any longer.

Li Cang took the improved stabilizer from the production slot and marked a line on Corvin's file: "Inject immediately."

The system popped up a confirmation window.

[Use: gene stabilizer - improved type x1]

[Target: Corvin - A-rank/78 points]

[Effect: genetic collapse rate reduced by 80%, from 1%/day to 0.2%/day]

[Effective Time: Fully effective 6–8 hours after injection]

He pressed confirm.

[Used. Corvin's genetic collapse rate has been adjusted.]

Good. Corvin's collapse rate was suppressed. The 43% collapse level would no longer skyrocket.

He confirmed the final deployment list.

[Reinforcement Force Composition]

[Commander: C-19 - SS-rank/121 points]

[Troops: 100 men, including 15 A-rank veterans + 85 B-rank standard soldiers]

[Transport: Military Truck x8]

[Estimated Marching Time: 14–17 hours]

[Objective: Manila Fortress, rescue the Tracking Squad, wipe out the Sun Warriors]

He pressed the confirm button.

[Reinforcement force dispatched]

Li Cang leaned back in his chair, watching the blue arrow representing the reinforcement force move slowly southward on the tactical map.

Fourteen to seventeen hours.

He could do nothing during this time. He could only wait.

Could TW-078 hold out? Was there enough ammunition in the warehouse? Would the walking vehicle underground break free from the collapsed ruins? Would the Sun Warriors launch a general offensive before reinforcements arrived?

He didn't know.

He stood up and walked to the window.

Outside was the city at night. The same neon lights and the same flow of traffic as before.

But seven hundred kilometers away, twenty-nine Thunder Warriors in an abandoned tin warehouse were using Bolters and grenades to fight over forty Sun Warriors and a walking vehicle. They didn't know when reinforcements would arrive; they only knew the signal had been sent.

"Hold on," Li Cang said.

No one heard him.

He returned to the console and did one last thing.

He opened Nathan Doom's prisoner file and entered the interrogation interface.

[Interrogation Request: Urgent]

[Question: Garrison size of the Sun Warriors at Manila Fortress, identity of the Commander, equipment details.]

[Cost: 200 GP, Urgent Interrogation Surcharge]

Two hundred GP. He currently had 2,760. After deducting it, 2,560 remained.

Not cheap. But now was not the time to be stingy.

He pressed confirm.

[Interrogation submitted. Estimated response time: 2–4 hours.]

Two to four hours. By the time the interrogation results came out, the reinforcement force would have traveled about a third of the way. If Nathan Doom could provide useful intelligence—the specific number of Sun Warriors, who the letter on the note represented, the weaknesses of that walking vehicle—the information could be relayed to C-19 before reinforcements arrived, allowing him to formulate a battle plan in advance.

"Nathan Doom," Li Cang stared at the photo of the gray-eyed man in the prisoner file, "you'd better be honest."

He closed the panel.

Then he did something he rarely did.

He opened the Tracking Squad's real-time status panel. This panel used the system's internal data link and did not rely on communication signals; it could display basic status even if battlefield communications were jammed.

Twenty-nine light dots were displayed on the panel. Each dot represented a Thunder Warrior. The color of the dots represented their status: green was normal, yellow was light injury, red was severe injury, and gray was KIA.

Twenty-seven green.

One yellow. TW-078.

One yellow. TW-188.

No red. No gray.

Still alive. They were all still alive.

Li Cang pinned the panel to the top right corner of the screen and turned his chair toward the window.

He didn't intend to sleep.