Chapter 1415: Another Way
From a distance, there was a roar that tore through space.
A thick cylindrical mass, engulfed in a ball of bright-orange flame, crossed a distance of hundreds of kilometers and smashed into the alloy gate like an iron fist.
The shell that was accelerated to the limit shredded the giant gate together with the mountain next to it with its destructive force. A deafening roar surged up from the quaking ground. Its annihilation power could be felt even from far away.
However, when the dust settled, Zhang Wei’s expression quickly changed to disappointment.
The alloy door was blasted open.
To be precise, it was destroyed.
Not only that, even the mountains that the cave was embedded into were also destroyed by this shell…
Zhang Wei stood there silently for a long time before he squeezed out a foul language that he had recently learned.
“Fu*k…”
The entrance to the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center was destroyed. The USN soldiers inside could not get out, nor could anyone outside get in.
Unwilling to just stand outside and do nothing against the weather weapon that could be launched at any point, Wade brought dozens of National Guard power armors into the ruins as they attempted to dig a way into the collapsed mountain. However, it turned out that the power armor was not designed for drilling. Despite their best effort, they did not succeed.
“It’s useless, we need professional construction equipment, like excavators or drills.” When Zhang Wei walked to Wade’s side, there was a visible frown on his face as he looked at the rubble.
He debated if another shell was a good idea.
But when he thought that this might make the situation worse, he gave up on the idea after some hesitation.
Not far away, the National Guard finally gave up relying on manpower to remove the collapsed rubble, because they finally discovered that it was not just the door that had collapsed, but the entire tunnel behind the door.
At this time, the Minuteman “Rangers” also rushed over with their motorcycles. After they saw the collapsed mountain, they also felt helpless.
Zhang Wei could not formulate a plan, so he had to report to the command post. After he learned two excavators and an engineer company had set off from Outpost Town, he ordered his men to start cleaning the battlefield.
Hopefully, we can make it.
After he ended the communication with the command post, Zhang Wei was about to find a place to rest. However, a soldier in kinetic skeleton walked up to him and saluted.
“Report sir, we found him in the concrete ruins.”
As the soldier spoke, a survivor in ragged clothes was pushed in front of Zhang Wei.
“First of all, I am definitely not on their side.” When Blood Axe realized Zhang Wei was examining him with intrigue, he quickly raised both of his hands to signal that he was not hostile. Then he carefully said, “If you have heard of Outpost Town on the West Coast, you can hand me over to the Governor Zhou Guoping there. I can guarantee you’ll get a huge ransom.”
“Zhou Guoping?” Zhang Wei raised his eyebrows and said with a smile, “How long have you not been back to the West Coast?”
Blood Axe took a second to digest this information. He didn’t react to the amount of information in this sentence.
“We are the people of NAC,” Zhang Wei pointed to the collapsed mountain. “The group of people inside are USN, and they have a lot of conflicts with us.”
“USN…wait, you are from NAC?” There was a momentary look of joy on Blood Axe, then he quickly said, “Then can you tell Zhou Guoping for me that this is not NATO’s nuclear arsenal at all, but NATO—”
“Weather Weapon,” Zhang Wei waved his hand impatiently, “We have already learned this information. And the Zhou Guoping you mentioned was taken away by USN. Now it is unknown whether he is alive or dead.”
After Blood Axe learned that Zhou Guoping had been taken away, he was shell-shocked and it took him a while to accept this fact.
Gradually, the color on his face turned from bad to worse.
It wasn’t because of how loyal he was to Zhou Guoping, but that guy still owed him thousands of bottle caps. In the beginning, they agreed that as long as he could trace the final destination of the batch of nuclear weapons, no matter whether there was any nuclear arsenal there, he could get at least a thousand caps.
Although he did not find a nuclear arsenal, he did discover the weather weapon that sounded equally destructive. He thought that he could use this information in exchange for two or three thousand caps. However, the person in front of him now told him that Zhou Guoping’s whereabouts were unknown…
“If you want to go back to Outpost Town, go back by yourself. We have something to do now and we have no time for you.” After Zhang Wei left this sentence and was about to leave, he did not expect the next sentence from Blood Axe would stop his foot in the middle of the air.
“You… you want to go in?” Blood Axe looked at the group of power armors in the front, after a pause, he continued, “In fact, there is another way to get in beside the main entrance.”
…
Colonel McCarthy sat down on the ground as he looked at the tunnel filled with rubble. He wanted to say something, but not a word came out.
He thought he was for sure died from the power of that one shell.
However, he did not expect that that shell not only blasted down the alloy gate but also collapsed the mountain. The collapsed gravel buried the entire section of the tunnel. If he hadn’t run fast enough, he would have been buried inside.
He forced a few dry laughs to celebrate his survival, then struggled to stand up from the ground with the support of a rifle. He shook his dazed brain and patted the dust on his legs. A dozen soldiers also stood or sat not too far from him.
When he came, he took five hundred brothers with him.
And now, they were the only people left.
“What should we do now?” Colonel Ross swallowed dryly, unable to wet his parched throat. He stuffed the tablet back into his backpack and walked to Colonel McCarthy.
“We can only pray now that USS Obama will find out that we are in trouble soon.”
“Speaking of which, is there no energy at all in this meteorological monitoring center?” Ross’s brows were furrowed as he looked at the elevator that lead to the underground base behind him, “If there is no energy at all, how did it transfer the nuclear winter in North America to Pan-Asia.”
“The backup energy is sufficient. It is enough for this weather monitoring center to operate for fifty years,” Colonel McCarthy shook his head after he put away the rifle in his hands, “but the backup energy that is enough for the weather weapon to operate for fifty years has been locked for the existing weather guidance program. It cannot be used for any other purposes.”
“If you crack the security program in the supercomputer, modify it directly from the inside…”
“Do you know how?” McCarthy shrugged and said hopelessly, “I’m out of luck anyway.”
However, unexpectedly, Colonel Ross, who came from USS Obama, nodded.
“I can try… I used to work at the Information Defense Center of the Department of Homeland Security before I went into the hibernation chamber.”