"Chief, here is the list of all the refugees who has entered the base!" A second lieutenant from the logistics department gave a folder to Lin Zhong-qing.Lin Zhong-qing took it and looked it over. He then frowned, "Did they pa.s.s the ident.i.ty check of the mainframe?"
"These are the ones who have pa.s.sed. Those that didn"t pa.s.s has already been injected with restricting agents by the punishment squad," replied the second lieutenant.
Lin Zhong-qing couldn"t help but be happy that Base 013"s mainframe luckily had all of the information regarding all of the Hailiyan mecha operator on Planet Haijiao. This made sure that Hailiya"s spies couldn"t blend in with the refugees, making sure that Base 013 was safe from the watchful eyes of Hailiya.
Little Four was very pleased with himself, as this information was gathered from when he was still connected to the Federation"s bases while he was scouting around the bases of Hailiya. It should be said that even the Federation"s mainframe didn"t have information as detailed he had stolen… acquired.
However, what Lin Zhong-qing was more worried about was not the spies. Instead, he was more worried about…
Lin Zhong-qing picked up the folders beside him once again. Inside it was the data that showed the amount of supplies and resources available in the base being in the red. The data estimated that these supplies and resources were only enough for two days. The energy, weapons and equipment could still be salvaged for a longer time, so they were fine on that end, but the food and water situation was dire.
Lin Zhong-qing picked up the folders and walked briskly towards the command center. When he entered, he saw that it was full of people speed walking around as if they were in a racewalking compet.i.tion.
The command center was originally filled with staff from each department of the base. However now, only the regiment commanders of all the clans and the other higher-ups of the base were allowed to be there.
It should be explained that in the past two weeks, Base 012, 014 and 015 around Base 013 could no longer defend against Hailiya"s military force that was 10 times more in numbers. They had no choice but to abandon the bases and retreat to the center location between all of them, Base 013. In other words, Base 013 had actually become a lone city in the middle of nowhere.
At that moment, many lieutenant colonels and senior colonels were standing around the virtual screens to coordinate their future. They were the people that were supposed to be on a break today. However, how could they rest easy in their quarters? So, they all went to the command center and helped in predicting Hailiya"s movements, attacks and how to deal with those attacks.
The person in command today was Han Jijyun. In the past few days, he and Li Lanfeng switched with each other for the task of coordinating practice battles and discussing with the regiment commanders of all the clans. Although he and Li Lanfeng switched everyday, his face was still showing signs of fatigue. After the forces from the other three bases retreated to Base 013, the pressure on him and Li Lanfeng reached to the point where he almost could not bear with it anymore. This made Han Jijyun, who was a newbie strategist that had only come into contact with war for a short amount of time, have the illusion of not being able to breathe from the immense pressure. He felt he had already reached his limit. However, when he saw that Li Lanfeng still had fight in him, his own heart began to burn with determination…
This feeling of being unable to compare to someone else made Han Jijyun feel frustrated. It made him want to work even harder and better. However, the more he did this, the more he felt he couldn"t compare to Li Lanfeng. With this mindset, even if they changed shifts, he still wouldn"t be able to rest well…
Han Jijyun turned to look at Lin Zhong-qing. Lin Zhong-qing just pointed towards Ling Lan"s office and asked Han Jijyun, "Is Boss inside?"
During this time, Boss was always running between the mecha hold and command center to give orders. Inside the base, all mecha operators who were elite ace or above and didn"t have shifts would stand guard in the mecha hold, prepared for battle at any second. It was also these brave individuals who fended off Hailiya"s probing attacks one after the other, not allowing Base 013 to fall into enemy hands.
Han Jijyun nodded towards Lin Zhong-qing, gesturing that Ling Lan was in her office. He then surrept.i.tiously put up three fingers. Lin Zhong-qing knew that with the signal that there were three outsiders in Boss"s office.
Lin Zhong-qing walked into Ling Lan"s office and saw four people sitting in the living room area of the office. Other than Boss, the other three were the commanding officers of the Base 012, 014 and 015. The three of them were all smoking with very depressing expressions on their faces. They looked as though they weren"t confident that they would be able to endure this final week.
Lin Zhong-qing saluted them and then walked in front of Ling Lan. He handed the folder to Ling Lan and said, "Regiment commander, please take a look at this."
Ling Lan opened it and scanned through it. She saw the numbers of the food and water supply and immediately understood the situation they were in.
She handed the folder back to Lin Zhong-qing and coldly said, "It seems that our prediction is right. Hailiya indeed wants to use those refugees to come to us to deplete our food and water supply."
"To be honest, in the second week when they crazily attacked our logistics supply convoy that was retreating, blocking off us from bringing supplies into Base 013, I had already though it would become like this." The commanding officer of Base 012 smiled bitterly.
"Plus, it is even clearer what they are planning when they would stop their chase when those refugees enter Base 013"s territory," the commanding officer from Base 015 took a huge whiff of his cigarette and said. However, even though they knew about the enemy"s plans, they couldn"t just not accept the refugee soldiers. They were still not cold-blooded enough to abandon their own comrades.
"This Major Lin has probably sent over the data regarding the supplies in the logistics department. The situation is really bad, right? How many days can we hold out for?" The commanding officer of Base 014 looked towards Lin Zhong-qing. Lin Zhong-qing often reported to Ling Lan regarding the internal workings in the logistics department. Thus, these commanding officers had already remembered him by name.
"Optimistically, two days," Ling Lan said plainly.
"I had also predicted that there was only a few days left. Three days ago, when the food that was handed out began to decrease, I knew that the base couldn"t hold out for much longer," said the commanding officer of Base 014. "In the past few days, the soldiers of the Federation who retreated into Base 013 have begun to increase in numbers. Thus, the pressure on the logistics department is becoming heavier and heavier… We have reached the predicament where we must go out to find food, and as luck would have it, the enemy is all around us… Now, if a group was to go out, they would probably get jumped on by multiple groups. The enemy plans on letting us rot in Base 013. No wonder in the past few days, there were only small a.s.saults. Their intentions were to test us, not to attack us." If the enemy had used the same amount of military force that was used against Base 014, Base 013 may not be able to hold on for more than two or three days.
Ling Lan said calmly, "Not only that, Hailiya still wants to use Base 013 to catch more fish…"
The three commanding officers looked towards Ling Lan with confused expressions. They couldn"t understand what Ling Lan was saying.
"If these soldiers from the Federation were to do guerrilla warfare around their area continuously, they would constantly be hara.s.sed and disturbed. Thus, it would be better for them to let them go and retreat into Base 013 for two reasons. One, it would deplete our resources and supplies much quicker. Two, they would be able to destroy all of us at once!" Ling Lan knew very well that if these refugee soldiers from the Federation were to actually hide in the corners around Planet Haijiao, it would be impossible for Hailiya to completely annihilate them without a few years of battle.