429: Nuclear explosion

“Oh no, it's a cruise missile!” Cheng Xiao shouted and immediately gave chase.

Seeing this, Asiba also hurriedly engaged her mecha and followed closely behind Cheng Xiao.

“That's a Land-3 missile, with a speed of Mach 3. Judging by the trajectory, it's aimed at our army. It should lock onto its target in one minute.”

Cheng Xiao immediately assessed the general situation.

The two women's mechas flew side-by-side, one to the left and one to the right, but they were extremely nervous.

Because both of them saw the terrifying symbol—a nuclear weapon!

“Don't hesitate, sister, help me lift it.” While speaking, Cheng Xiao flew underneath the cruise missile and pushed upward with all her might.

“I'm coming, sister!” Asiba followed suit, flying behind Cheng Xiao and pushing her mecha's power to the maximum.

Under their interference, the cruise missile began to veer off course, flying diagonally above the army's encampment.

“We can't let go; we must take it far away first,” Cheng Xiao gritted her teeth and said.

“Sister! Who knows when this thing will explode?” Asiba was panicking. Even if it wasn't a nuclear bomb, if it were loaded with a conventional warhead, an explosion at this close range would surely kill them both!

“We can't worry about that now! Follow me!”

“Okay! Whether we live or die, I'm with you!”

The two of them and the missile sped across the sky, thousands of meters above the base.

Most people below did not notice this scene; only a few saw it.

They didn't understand what was happening, but they felt their hair stand on end and experienced an indescribable fear.

Having lived in the apocalypse for so long, their perception of danger was exceptionally strong.

Such a large missile surely meant harm. And the only people in Shanlan Province with mechas were Cheng Xiao and Asiba.

“Is that Commander Xi Ba and Lady Cheng Xiao?” someone asked first.

“Turn on the radar and check!” The person in charge of air defense hurriedly turned on the monitor and identified the mechas.

“It is indeed the two ladies!”

“Holy crap! They're carrying the missile away?”

“Damn it! The enemy fired this at us. The two ladies intercepted it halfway.”

“My ladies! Please be careful, withdraw as soon as you can!”

The members of the Dawn Army expressed their concern, all of them breaking into a cold sweat.

“Sister, we've passed the army.” Asiba breathed a sigh of relief; the greatest danger had been averted.

“I see it. If this is a nuclear bomb, the kill radius will definitely be large. Let's fly a few dozen more kilometers.”

Cheng Xiao continued to grit her teeth and fly, but she knew that every second now meant facing death.

Who knew when it would explode?

Nuclear bombs are often set to airburst; it might be set by flight time, flight distance, or even flight coordinates.

If any of these criteria were met, it could detonate!

Moreover, they didn't dare to speed up for fear of outrunning the cruise missile and triggering its self-destruct mechanism.

This is just insane!

Fortunately, this thing wasn't slow; it could cover sixty kilometers in a minute, which should be safe enough.

“Sister! Break away in one minute, and let's fly as far as we can,” Cheng Xiao said.

“Okay, sister! Speed is at max!”

...

“Break away!” One minute later, Cheng Xiao shouted, and the two of them flew away from the cruise missile, heading straight for Lao Liu's direction without looking back.

The flames at the tail of the missile gradually extinguished, its fuel exhausted, and it began to fall.

Half a minute later, it descended to an altitude of 1000 meters.

Suddenly! The whole world lit up!

Following that was a massive explosion, instantly forming a huge fireball that descended from the sky!

Under a nuclear bomb, all beings are equal!

Everywhere it reached, whether trees or buildings, ground or water, everything was instantly leveled by the shockwave.

Countless small objects were swept up by the shockwave toward the black hole in the sky.

Cheng Xiao and the other flew over a hundred kilometers away and stopped at an altitude of tens of thousands of meters. Feeling safe, they immediately turned back to observe the terrifying scene.

The fireball smashed a crater into the ground that was three kilometers in diameter and several hundred meters deep.

The shockwave extended more than twenty kilometers from the center of the explosion.

A massive mushroom cloud gradually formed and slowly rose to an altitude of tens of kilometers.

“Damn it, these people actually have nuclear bombs!” Cheng Xiao cursed loudly.

“That was so close! Sister, that was dangerous!” Asiba was still shaken, her heart pounding.

The Dawn Army was also shaken by the explosion, and they immediately realized it was a nuclear bomb.

They had absolutely no NBC protection gear, and facing nuclear radiation, they could only withstand it with their bodies.

So the entire army piled into their vehicles and immediately sped away in the opposite direction of the explosion.

They had to run as far as they could!

As for heavy artillery and other equipment, no one cared anymore; they had to prioritize the people.

Lao Liu and his team had sped dozens of kilometers away, so the nuclear explosion had almost no effect on them.

But all the members of the special forces unit stopped to look back.

Lao Liu also stared at the mushroom cloud, roughly estimating the distance of the explosion.

“Seventh Sister? Dawn Army???” He called out several times, only to find that all communications had been cut off.

“Brothers! Stop looking, keep charging! Our main army should be fine! It's quite far away.”

One minute later, Lao Liu gave the order to charge at full speed; no matter what happened behind them, they had to arrive.

At this moment, Cheng Xiao and Asiba spotted the special forces unit and flew to a position more than a hundred meters above them.

“Brother Liu, Xi Ba and I carried the missile dozens of kilometers away, so it didn't hit the main army directly. Let's continue our operation!”

Cheng Xiao transmitted to Lao Liu.

“OJBK!” After hearing this, Lao Liu shouted happily at the sky!

Just as everyone was composing themselves, preparing for a full-force assault.

A sudden turn of events occurred.

From another direction, another cruise missile flew in and exploded above the army.

Cheng Xiao and Asiba had absolutely no way to stop it; there was no time to carry it away.

The two of them and the special forces could only watch helplessly as the nuclear weapon exploded again!

This time, the main Dawn Army unit was not so lucky.

After a loud bang, a mushroom cloud rose into the sky.

The army of over ten thousand people, along with their equipment, were all wiped out.

“Fuck you!”

Cheng Xiao looked at the mushroom cloud in the distance, speaking each word slowly, her eyes filled with murderous intent.

“Ah! My Western Army!” Asiba covered her mask with both hands, unable to believe it.

During this time, she had led the army through continuous battles and forged deep bonds with everyone.

But now, right before her eyes, the army had been reduced to atoms!

“Damn Shanlan Province! They actually launched two nuclear bombs at once!” Lao Liu slammed the armrest box, making it slap loudly.

Since the Dawn Army was formed, it had never suffered such a heavy loss.

These were battle-hardened troops!

This was an armored unit!

This was Pan Han's life's work!

“No wonder we drove so far without encountering a single ambush; it turns out the enemy was planning to use nuclear weapons and had withdrawn all their troops,” the special forces driver suddenly realized.

“Hmph! Those bastards sure are calculating!”

“My brother was still in the main army! Ah! Brother, I will avenge you!”

...

At this moment, a mecha flew rapidly from the distance and stopped in front of everyone.

Who else could it be but Pan Han.

Earlier, he hadn't traveled far in the transport plane, so he naturally witnessed the nuclear explosion firsthand, and thus immediately put on his mecha to come and rendezvous with Cheng Xiao.

“Commander, you've returned. It's even more dangerous here now. Hurry and leave,” Cheng Xiao said loudly.

“Number Five is right! It's best to kill them all! Order!”

Pan Han was wearing his helmet visor, but everyone could feel his grim expression.

Hearing the word “order,” Cheng Xiao, Asiba, Lao Liu, and all the special forces team members stood at attention.

“Shanlan Province, leave no prisoners, kill them all.”

“Yes!”

This response resounded through the sky, the murderous intent even overshadowing the two mushroom clouds.