58: Chapter 58 There's a kind of borrowing called "borrowing without ever returning."
On a cold night in the Arctic Circle, a gale of minus twenty degrees Celsius whipped snow particles against the breakwater of Murmansk Port.
This was the largest ice-free port within the Arctic Circle and the home base of the Northern Fleet.
Two-thirds of the Russians' strategic nuclear submarines were stationed here, from Delta-class to Typhoon-class, densely packed into the berths.
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Deep within the port, the underground ammunition depot hid the core assets of the Russian military.
From conventional cruise missiles to high-yield strategic warheads, any weapon of destruction one could name could be found here.
Naturally, the entire naval port was protected by layer upon layer of security; it was no exaggeration to say that not even a seabird could fly in.
Tonight, everything was as usual.
The soldiers on duty stared at the screens in the duty room, pulled a stainless steel flask from their coats, and took a large swig of vodka.
The burning sensation slid down their throats and into their stomachs, instantly making them feel alert.
Don't ask how alcohol refreshes; it's simply a national characteristic.
In the exclusion zone outside the port, a Typhoon-class—the largest nuclear submarine in human history—was slowly leaving the channel.
This behemoth was comparable to a light aircraft carrier.
The Captain had just signed the departure documents and was about to head to the lounge for a nap when the piercing ship-wide alarm suddenly blared.
He rushed back to the command cabin in a few strides, the veins on his temples throbbing. "What happened?!"
The First Mate stared fixedly at the passive sonar screen, his voice shaking uncontrollably. "Captain! A moving underwater mountain range has appeared on sonar! It's over 1.5 kilometers long and is surfacing at high speed toward the naval port!"
"Are you fucking kidding me?" The Captain shoved him aside, his eyes glued to the screen.
The blip on the screen was five times larger than the entire Typhoon-class, rushing up from the deep sea at an incredible speed, less than ten nautical miles from the naval port.
"To hell with it, what is that thing?!" the Captain cursed, then turned and shouted, "Notify the naval port! We have encountered an unknown giant object. Enter combat status!"
However, the expected reply did not come. The communications officer shouted, "Captain! All-band signals have been jammed!"
The Captain turned back in disbelief. To be able to jam the Northern Fleet's military communications was no longer a conventional military tactic.
"Surface at full speed! All hands, battle stations!"
The piercing alarm echoed throughout the entire submarine.
The Typhoon-class's propellers turned frantically, and the submarine rushed toward the surface like a startled giant whale.
As the submarine just breached the surface, the sonarman suddenly screamed, "Captain! The target is also surfacing! It's about to come out!"
The Captain rushed to the periscope. The pitch-black sea surface suddenly exploded as tens of thousands of tons of seawater were tossed aside by a massive force. A dark grey steel ridge rose slowly from the deep.
Seawater poured off the sides of the hull like a waterfall, kicking up waves dozens of meters high.
The hull, over a kilometer long, was like a floating Atlantis, physically pressing a massive depression into the sea surface.
In front of it, the Typhoon-class truly looked like a small fishing boat.
The Captain looked at the giant ship on the sonar screen that had already surfaced, then at the distance between it and the naval port...
"It's too close. If it continues forward, the entire Northern Fleet will be exposed to its guns."
"I must warn them!"
"Even if communications are cut, they will surely notice an explosion!"
The Captain made his decision!
He knew in his heart that by attacking, regardless of the outcome, he could at least buy precious early warning time for the naval port.
"Fire! Launch all missiles!" The Captain's eyes turned red as the recklessness ingrained in the Russians' bones instantly took over.
The First Mate's face was deathly pale. "Captain! We are carrying heavy conventional anti-ship live rounds. This is an act of war!"
"Fire!" The Captain slammed his hand on the launch button. "If we don't, both we and the naval port are finished!"
Twenty missile silos opened simultaneously, and thick white smoke instantly engulfed the entire submarine.
Twenty heavy anti-ship missiles rushed out of the water one by one, trailing long exhaust flames that dyed the night sky a deep crimson. The sea surface even steamed with white mist from the heat of the flames as they lunged toward the giant ship.
This was one of the most insane submarine-launched missile volleys in the history of human navies. Twenty weapons capable of crippling a carrier strike group were all hurled at the same target.
The exhaust flames of the missiles illuminated half the night sky, making the scene clearly visible from the naval port over ten kilometers away.
The naval port finally discovered what was happening.
Inside the naval port's command headquarters, the atmosphere had exploded.
"Report! The Typhoon-class has suddenly opened all its launch silos!"
"What?!"
The Commander rushed to the window and raised his binoculars.
On the distant sea, twenty missiles trailed exhaust flames as they flew toward a giant warship unlike anything ever seen before.
However, at the very moment the missiles were about to hit, a pale purple translucent barrier suddenly appeared around the giant ship.
The twenty missiles slammed into it like pebbles thrown into a lake, only stirring up visible ripples.
The fire from the explosions engulfed the entire sea area, and the shockwave kicked up hundred-meter waves. But when the smoke and dust cleared, the giant ship was unscathed.
What caused the Russians to break down further was yet to come.
The engines of the giant ship hovering on the sea emitted a low hum, and it actually began to slowly ascend into the sky.
The kilometer-long hull blotted out the sky, looming like an overwhelming mountain and casting more than half of the naval port into shadow.
The hatches on the belly of the giant ship opened simultaneously, and dark shadows descended from the sky.
They were three-meter-tall steel giants.
Their ceramite composite armor gleamed coldly under the moonlight, with sharp lines and no ornate Gothic decorations.
These were the mass-produced power exoskeletons inspected a few days ago, now fitted with a full set of external ceramite armor. The once semi-finished products were now fully unlocked in their complete forms, with the exposed fly-by-wire systems entirely encased in angular ceramite armor.
Large hellguns were mounted on their shoulders, and they held heavy stubbers with calibers comparable to autocannons. Behind them were modular ammo boxes; they were literally moving land fortresses.
The moment they landed, deep craters were smashed into the permafrost.
Combat broke out instantly.
The shoulder-mounted hellguns were raised, and blue beams of light shot out, snapping the reinforced concrete coastal defense bunkers in half.
Their objective was clear, pointing straight at the command room. The fire points along the way didn't even have a chance to fire before being picked off and shattered by the hellguns one by one. The Russian defenders had no time to organize a proper counterattack.
The door to the command room was kicked open, and the Russian Commander threw a grenade without a word.
However, the enemy wearing Powered Armor blocked it with a man-sized boarding shield.
The grenade exploded, but this boarding shield, which lacked a small-scale force field generator, easily withstood the impact of the explosion through the sheer protection of the ceramite itself, leaving not even a scratch.
Seeing the shield wall as seamless as a city rampart, the Russian Commander completely gave up resistance.
He knew he couldn't run, and he knew resistance was futile, but he did not surrender.
The Commander gritted his teeth, the veins on his forehead bulging, yet he refused to utter a single submissive word, only staring fixedly at the steel giants before him. "Who are you? What do you want?"
The large screen in the command room suddenly lit up, bypassing all firewalls without any intrusion alerts. Fu Haoran's projection appeared on the screen. "Don't be nervous. I'm not here to start a war. I'm here to make a deal with you."