Counterfeit Hero

Chapter 1453: Chapter 9-3: The Plan

The group walked into the Front Army Command Building with heavy expressions.

On the corridor so silent that only their footsteps echoed, Ann Lei rolled her eyes at Fatty beside her, with a complete lack of malice: ”Jinx.”

”I am not.” Fatty muttered under his breath, frustrated.

”You’ve been one since you were a kid,” Ann Lei turned her head, like a beautiful swan disdainful of the plump duck by her side: ”That’s what my dad said.”

”Every time your dad says that, Mother Ann scolds him!” Fatty said with a hint of smugness, nodding and shaking his head at Ann Lei.

Mother Ann’s unwavering protection of him was beyond reason. Even Ann Lei often got jealous because of it. Therefore, bringing up Mother Ann was Fatty’s unbeatable trump card whenever he argued with Ann Lei since childhood.

Sure enough, Ann Lei fell silent.

”Jinx!” the little kid passed by Fatty, tossing a word, and hopped to the front.

Fatty was instantly infuriated. This little brat, spoiled rotten by Milan and the others lately. If it weren’t for Bonnie quick to pull him back, he wouldn’t care what kind of occasion this was; he’d give that little punk a good lesson.

Seeing Fatty’s expression like he had stepped in dog poop, the bandit army officers couldn’t help but exchange amused glances. The chuckles of several girls echoed clearly in the silent corridor.

The bandit army officers’ ease prompted the Leifeng Star Army officers beside them to exchange wry smiles. Watching Fatty and the couple of bewitching female officers beside him, with an exquisitely sculpted little boy, talking and laughing as if they didn’t take the just-received news seriously. Don’t they realize the current situation on Leifeng Star is on the brink of irreparable disaster?

At the front, Chen Fengxi and Pierre were walking swiftly, nearly rushing into the command hall.

The command hall wasn’t large, just a rectangular room less than a thousand square meters. The murals and wood decorations around the room faintly suggesting its original identity as an antique auction hall. At the center of the hall, a colossal SkyNet Central Computer was humming with the noise of its cooler. Nearly a dozen senior staff officers, at least of major rank, were busy in front of glowing SkyNet instruments and an electronic sand table.

Chen Fengxi briskly walked up to the SkyNet computer, inserted a file folder into the computer, then signaled an unsuspecting staffer to step aside, seated himself with a stern face, and rapidly typed commands on a virtual keyboard. On the SkyNet screen, an enormous operational situation map appeared before everyone.

The operational map depicted millions of square kilometers of land, densely marked with strategic locations, defense lines, transport routes, towns, airports, and so on. Countless red and blue arrows interweaving through it all. Using longitude 105 degrees east, 300 kilometers west of Phoenix City, as a boundary, the entire line north to south was already ablaze with continuous warfare.

With Chen Fengxi’s finger movements, Fatty quickly spotted Frenso Town, which had just been captured.

That was a small town in the hilly region of the Northern Battle Zone, 400 kilometers from Phoenix City, situated at the mid-protrusion of the winding Fei Alliance Northern District defense line. Within tens of kilometers around this town, there were two agricultural zones and one mining zone, along with two other towns. The Fei Alliance Joint Army and the Western Alliance Army were already in a state of battle on this land. Countless unit numbers were concentrated here, forming lines of defense or vectors of attack.

And now, this town with a population of 400,000 had been occupied by the Su Jie Alliance Army. According to intelligence, the Su Jie joint forces were advancing east along Frenso Town’s highway. Although nearby Fei Alliance forces were furiously trying to intercept layer by layer, many reserve forces had already been mobilized to the front. Yet, they still couldn’t stop the enemy’s advance. Once the Western Alliance deploys their reinforcements, breaks through interceptions, and expands to the flanks, the entire regional defense line centered around Frenso Town would be breached.

With this retreat, the whole defense line would have to be pulled back at least 200 kilometers. Not to mention under the strong offensive of the Western Alliance, the magnitude of loss such a retreat would incur, and how many units not able to retreat in time would be encircled and segmented by the Western Alliance; just retreating to the infinite expanses of Phoenix City Plain without natural barriers implies a battle no one wants to witness.

Thinking about this, Fatty and the others’ expressions turned solemn. Blatt, Zhou Zhisen, Robert, and other army generals quickly seized an electronic sand table to discuss the development of the situation.

Currently, the Fei Alliance Lei Feng Star Army’s forces were already stretched thin. Meanwhile, the Western Alliance continued to bolster their forces. Over the past month, at least fifty to sixty army divisions arrived at Leifeng Star. Presently, the force ratio between the two sides was already as high as two to one, and the Western Alliance Army’s units were more concentrated with more adequate logistical supplies.

Losing the defense line west of Phoenix City was tantamount to losing this battle. Without the constraint of territory, the Western Alliance Army would emerge like wolf packs bursting through a narrow cage, advancing in groups toward all directions on Leifeng Star. As defeat comes like a landslide, even if the Fei Alliance Joint Army were to retreat to the 17,000 meters high Leifeng Mountain Range, it would be useless.

”General Tian, what do you think?” Chen Fengxi asked as he stood up, with an iron expression, pacing a couple of steps forward to stand beside the electronic sand table and spoke to Fatty.

”Is our SkyNet being suppressed?” Fatty did not answer Chen Fengxi directly but looked worriedly at the SkyNet Control Console. From the moment they entered the command hall, he noticed that SkyNet’s automatic information updates were very slow, mostly operated manually by staff officers. Even the urgent information received by Chen Fengxi wasn’t directly fed back by SkyNet; only after Chen Fengxi inserted the electronic folder was the situation map adjusted.