206: Chapter 207 Countdown

As a frontline Commander, Colonel Andrei hadn't touched a gun in a long time.

Holding a weapon again, he instinctively racked the bolt with practiced ease, a smile of nostalgia and happiness inevitably appearing on his face.

Who would have known!

That single smile instantly made that Clone player as excited as if he'd been injected with adrenaline!

From that day on.

That dim-witted Clone ran to the construction site every single day without fail.

One day he'd bring a laser gun, the next a shotgun, and the day after that, he even snuck in a heavy machine gun and shoved it into Colonel Andrei's hands!

Every time he delivered a weapon, the Clone would squat nearby, staring at Colonel Andrei with eyes full of intense anticipation!

Colonel Andrei was creeped out at the time and completely baffled.

But seeing that look of anticipation, he felt a bit embarrassed to keep accepting weapons from him for free every day.

After struggling with it for a long time.

Colonel Andrei gritted his teeth and pulled out an old medal of valor from his inner pocket—one awarded to him by the Governor after he won a campaign against the Greenskins at the border.

He handed the medal to the Clone as a return gift.

As it turned out!

Once the Clone got his hands on that worthless piece of scrap metal, he was so excited he jumped up on the spot!

He did three backflips on the spot, then held up the medal to show off to the other Clones, shouting crazy gibberish that Colonel Andrei couldn't understand at all:

"Hahaha! Look, brothers! I told you we could grind favor with the NPCs in this game! I grinded this old man's favor to the max and finally got a hidden item drop!"

"This has to be a purple-tier special accessory! It must have a hidden morale bonus if you carry it, don't you believe me?!"

Recalling this, Colonel Andrei shook his head helplessly and looked away.

"These soldiers are indeed gods who fear no death when they fight, but their brains in daily life... are truly questionable."

Colonel Andrei made a very objective assessment of the players in his heart.

Soon.

His staff found the specialized armored shuttle sent by the Alliance military to pick them up.

The group boarded the shuttle and flew toward the newly organized military camp on the outskirts of the capital.

The camp was not far from the commercial starport.

Ten minutes later, the shuttle landed steadily.

Just as he stepped off the ramp, Colonel Andrei saw the Political Commissar and other high-ranking officers lined up on the tarmac to welcome him.

Colonel Andrei took a quick glance at the crowd. A wave of surprise surged in his heart.

Most of the faces in this welcoming group of officers were very familiar to him!

Many of them were even old comrades-in-arms who had fought side-by-side with him in the trenches of distant fortresses, resisting aliens and truly shedding blood together!

Veterans like these, who came from civilian backgrounds and lacked connections.

Previously, within Governor Cromwell's Defense Force system, they had all been pushed into marginal, idle positions by arrogant noble officers, holding absolutely no real power.

But now! Under the reshuffling of the Spark Alliance, these capable veterans who dared to fight hard battles had basically been promoted beyond expectations to become the core command strength of each main regiment!

Of course, there were also many officers in the ranks who came from noble backgrounds.

But when Colonel Andrei looked closely, these noble officers were all pragmatists who had truly been to the front lines and seen blood; there were none of those delicate young masters who only knew how to talk about warfare on paper.

"Very good, the Alliance's personnel appointments are very professional."

Colonel Andrei silently gave a big thumbs-up to the leader's method of employing personnel.

After exchanging brief pleasantries with his old comrades.

Colonel Andrei immediately entered work mode.

He declined the welcome banquet and directly demanded that they take him to inspect the military's core foundation—the underground armory.

However.

When the quartermaster opened the heavy blast doors.

And Colonel Andrei, along with his staff, truly stepped into the massive armory that had been converted from an air-raid shelter.

He was completely stunned!

He saw that on the left side of the endless underground warehouse.

Brand-new self-propelled artillery were parked densely!

On the hanging racks from the ceiling, Valkyrie ground-attack aircraft and troop transport shuttles painted in grey camouflage were neatly arranged!

Moving further forward.

There were rows of Leman Russ main battle tanks, as well as Sentinel walkers suitable for mobile combat in the ruins of Hive Cities! As for those Heavy Stubbers, Bolters, and mountains of ammunition crates, they were stacked all the way to the ceiling!

If these traditional heavy equipments of the Imperium of Man were already making Colonel Andrei's heart race.

Then when he turned his head to look at the area on the right side of the warehouse, his brain almost completely shut down.

In the brightly lit area on the right.

Everything displayed was high-tech Alliance equipment that he had only seen from afar back in Shelter's prisoner-of-war camp!

Rows of polished plasma shoulder cannons, crates upon crates of unopened multi-barreled large-caliber laser guns!

Even in the deepest part of the warehouse, dozens of Gladiator Mechs, standing four or five meters tall and equipped with heavy firepower, stood silently like iron towers!

Beside them were rows upon rows of Power Armor, supplied only for elite soldiers to wear!

With this batch of heavy equipment! Colonel Andrei had absolute confidence that he could immediately raise a steel-armored mechanized division within half a month!

Colonel Andrei looked dazed, turning his head blankly to look at the proud quartermaster beside him.

"These... are these all ours?!" Colonel Andrei's voice drifted.

The quartermaster puffed out his chest and reported loudly:

"Report, Commander! These are all ours! This is just the first batch of replacement equipment that the Spark Alliance headquarters just supported us with via transport ship yesterday! And where we are now is only the camp's Warehouse No. 1!"

Colonel Andrei's Adam's apple bobbed with difficulty, his voice stuttering:

"How... how many warehouses like this do you have here?"

The quartermaster held up two fingers, crossing them into an 'X': "Exactly ten!"

"Ten..."

Colonel Andrei only felt a rush of blood surge to his head, his brain momentarily oxygen-deprived, and his legs went weak, nearly causing him to lose his footing.

An old comrade beside him was quick-witted and caught him.

After being dazed for a full half-minute.

"Hahaha!"

Colonel Andrei suddenly pushed away the person supporting him and let out a burst of wild laughter directly in the armory!

"Ten warehouses of heavy equipment! Hahaha! I've been a soldier my whole life, and I have never, ever fought such a wealthy war!"

Colonel Andrei turned around, sweeping away his previous fatigue, his eyes burning with fanatical fighting spirit.

He roared at all the officers:

"Immediately! Summon all Mobius officers at the regimental level and above! Everyone is to be in the war room for a meeting within half an hour!"

Meanwhile, on the other side.

Lin Li returned to the deep underground control room.

He leaned back in his chair, tapping his fingers on the desk out of boredom, and began to ponder.

"The 500,000 new player slots on level B7 are almost fully deployed now, and the number of players has seen a surge."

Lin Li frowned,

"But, why is there no sign of missions for the newly opened level B8? The main storyline is stuck here and not refreshing, what's going on?"

"Don't tell me this dump of a Shelter just petered out after digging to the seventh level? Did someone bring real estate speculation into Warhammer?"

Lin Li muttered to himself,

"The Galaxy is so big, and the Imperium is full of leaking fires everywhere. Relying on just these few hundred thousand players in my hands to put out fires is a bit underwhelming."

These few hundred thousand death-defying members of The Fourth Calamity, if just taken out to act as a galaxy-level warlord to bully the surrounding Greenskins and Governors, would have absolutely no problem; they could even steamroll them.

But if they were to shout the slogan of reviving humanity and go head-to-head with those billions of monsters and ghosts, they would still be lacking; he had to continue mass-producing troops!

Lin Li was just wondering if he should take some people to carefully search and tap around the underground passages to see if there were any hidden switches or mechanisms he had missed.

"Bang!"

The door to the control room was pushed open violently.

Commander Ushtan strode in.

"Lord!"

Ushtan skipped even the salute and reported loudly,

"Just received intelligence! The main fleet of the Tyranids... has arrived at the outskirts of the galaxy group!"

Upon hearing this, Lin Li stood up from his chair so abruptly that he knocked the chair over.

"So fast?!"

It was no wonder Lin Li was so surprised.

From the time that Tyranid vanguard fleet was destroyed to the main swarm's army pressing down now.

At most, only a short three months had passed!

The players were still digesting the underground minerals and industrial resources of the various planets and were in the critical ramp-up period of converting resources into heavy firepower combat capability!

Large numbers of newcomers hadn't even grinded out the most basic Power Armor yet!

"This comes at a really bad time."

Lin Li gritted his teeth, "Let's go! To the surface command center!"

The two hurried to the newly expanded starport joint command center on the surface.

As soon as they entered the gate.

Lin Li saw Iron Man 73 and Iron Man U-999, who had just returned from the industrial planet—these two ancient AIs, who usually mocked each other whenever they met, were for once not arguing.

They were gathered around the central tactical console, rapidly communicating defense plans through complex data streams.

Since the Gorgon Industrial World had been completely unified and was operating stably, U-999, as an industrial coordination expert, was naturally urgently recalled by Lin Li to Shelter headquarters to assist in dealing with this crisis.

Lin Li walked quickly between the two Iron Men and cast his gaze toward the huge holographic star map projection in the center of the console.

In the holographic projection, a high-precision star map was displayed, with the Yuanwang Star System as the center and its surrounding radiation range.

Within this sector extending twenty light-years, there were many stars.

But only those nine systems were truly under the control of the Imperium of Man and possessed a complete defense system.

As for the other vast areas, they were either anarchic territories infested with various dangerous aliens or dead zones lacking resources and life.

At this moment.

On the far edge outside the point representing the Yuanwang Star System.

A dense patch of red dots, thick as a sea of blood, had lit up!

The number of these dots was so great that it had dyed the edge of the star map a terrifying scarlet red!

"Creator."

Seeing Lin Li arrive, Iron Man 73 immediately switched to voice reporting mode,

"Through the warnings of those few high-level Psykers at the Astropath tower on Mobius Prime, and the data feedback from the particle remote sensing detection array we deployed on the periphery."

"It is now completely confirmed! The main army of the Tyranids has crossed the void and formally descended into the gravity well at the edge of this galaxy group!"

73 drew an estimated flight path on the star map,

"According to the most extreme speed predictions, they will completely break through the gravity net on the outskirts of the galaxy in 6 days and make formal contact with our outer defensive line!"

Hearing the number 6 days.

Lin Li's heart, which had been hanging in his throat, relaxed slightly.

"Fortunately, there is still a buffer period of a few days." Lin Li let out a breath.

As long as it wasn't right in their faces tomorrow, with the terrifying production capacity of The Fourth Calamity and the World Forger, a few more days would be enough to arm the galaxy into a giant iron turtle!

73 continued to move the coordinates on the star map, zooming into a local area:

"Current intelligence shows that this massive swarm has not adopted a concentrated breakthrough formation; they have split into multiple tentacles and are advancing simultaneously toward multiple systems with life signals within this sector."

"It is currently uncertain how many fleets will ultimately pounce directly on our Yuanwang Star System, but one thing is certain."

73 used his finger to draw a red attack axis below the star map, "Their main force will cut into the Yuanwang Star System from an elevation angle of 50 degrees below the ecliptic plane, at the four o'clock position!"

"According to this orbital trajectory calculation, the first target this tentacle will make contact with... the one closest to them, is precisely Outpost 544, also known as the Prison Planet!"

Hearing that the Prison Planet was the first to bear the brunt.

Lin Li's eyelid twitched.

The Prison Planet was currently covered everywhere with giant biological incubation sacs planted by players; that was the core arsenal for players to mass-produce Flesh Mecha.

If the bugs really attacked there, they might mistakenly think it was one of their own.

"The distance is fine, not too far, right at our doorstep; we can provide fire support at any time."

Lin Li rubbed his chin and issued the order: "Pass my order to all military factories! Don't worry about machine wear and tear! From now on, implement 24-hour three-shift operations! Accelerate production! Fill all the warehouses with weapons for me!"

After giving the defense arrangements.

Lin Li turned and hurried back to the underground control room.

He sat directly in front of the computer.

Since a great enemy was at hand, according to custom, it was naturally time to issue the highest-level mission mobilization order for the entire server.

As long as The Fourth Calamity sees a health bar and a countdown, their efficiency in getting things done will absolutely double!

Lin Li skillfully typed on the keyboard, directly posting the highest-level announcement with scarlet text and blood-colored borders at the most prominent pinned position on the official website's entire platform!

[Large-scale Legendary Campaign Preview: Arrival of the Doomsday Swarm!]

[Frontline battle report updated: The true destructive calamity has arrived at the edge of the star sector! They bring only death!]

[Sparks! Abandon all illusions! Prepare to welcome total war!]

[Time until full contact with the main swarm, countdown: 6 days]