Doomsday: I Build a Space Fleet

Chapter 208 Artillery barrage and incendiary bombardment

Cola Novels () Latest Update: Doomsday: I Assemble a Space Fleet

As the tunnel boring machine slowly excavates its way through the ground, railway inspection and maintenance work continues.

Ten Peregrine 35 heavy utility helicopters carried spare parts needed for railway maintenance vehicles, traveling more than 100 kilometers to deliver these parts to Airport No. 2.

The engineering robots stationed at Airport No. 2 secured these parts to heavy transport vehicles, which then transported them to the train station 4 kilometers away.

When the railway maintenance car is assembled, the maintenance and renovation of the surrounding factories are completed simultaneously, and they can produce engineering robots that are less difficult to manufacture but have a slightly shorter battery life.

Unfortunately, these factories are unable to perform cold forging, so the iron parts such as rails and bolts needed for track repair still need to be transported from steel mills near the shipyard.

While Lorraine and the others were focused on how to eliminate the war behemoths hiding underground, the zombie clearing work on Lania Island also encountered some minor troubles.

The island has a small population, about 30% of the total population of Khuna, and most of these people are distributed in towns and villages along the island's coastline.

Faced with these towns, most of which consisted of brick houses, Yao Guang did not need to use his heavy armored vehicles. He simply used a large number of wheeled vehicles in conjunction with a large number of unmanned combat units to quickly wipe them out.

In the 20 days following Lorraine's departure from Red Peak Island, Yaoguang unsealed all the heavy armored vehicles and wheeled vehicles in its inventory and equipped them with a sufficient number of crew members, relying on the powerful industrial manufacturing capabilities within the underground base.

Relying on these robot pilots, Yao Guang's troops cleared out all the farms within a 100-kilometer radius of the landing point on the first day of landing on Lania Island, and kept a close watch on a small town 5 kilometers southeast of the landing point.

The town has a permanent population of just over 10, and a river flows through the edge of the city. The people living in the northwest part of the river are mostly workers who work in a small shipyard on the riverbank.

To the west of the town is a small mine, where some small to medium-sized silicon-based organisms naturally live.

Yao Guang only needed to deploy two sorties of Qianlong fighter jets and consume 10 tons of general-purpose bombs to completely clear the silicon-based organisms from the area.

Because the mine was surrounded by a large, dense forest and the nearest residential area was 1 kilometer away, the sound waves from the explosion did not attract the attention of the zombies in the town. Instead, it was the screeching sound of the fighter jets diving that caught their attention.

However, these were just minor incidents, and the operation to clear the zombies from the town went smoothly.

However, as the area being cleaned increased, the uniformity of the zombie species aroused Yao Guang's suspicion.

After all, most of the people living on this island are engaged in agricultural production, but they did not encounter any zombies transformed from livestock such as cattle and sheep during their advance.

The only area that remains uncleared is the densely forested plateau of the Midwest.

These plateaus range in altitude from 1200 to 1500 meters, and the Type 19 main battle tank can easily reach them and move freely on them.

The problem now is that the overgrown jungle is severely hindering the advance of heavy armored forces, and it has also destroyed the few roads available in the area, blocking the movement routes of wheeled armored units.

Since the situation inside the jungle was unclear, Yaoguang could only send out several mixed reconnaissance teams, consisting of Guardian Robots, Sentinel Robots, and Hound Multi-Purpose Combat Platforms, to search the jungle.

After some calculations, Yao Guang still dispatched two teams of 12 Lynx six-wheeled assault vehicles that had been modified to be unmanned, with two guard robots on each vehicle.

The two convoys proceeded into the depths of the jungle along a path where shadows could be faintly seen.

However, after three days of searching, they had only explored 1% of the jungle.

After confirming that it was impossible to enter the jungle from the ground, Yao Guang ordered a halt to the advance and began producing logging equipment using the industrial facilities at the underground base, while also unlocking more heavy helicopters.

From the moment of landing, fighter jets carrying ground attack pods and synthetic aperture radars have been circling over the island. After multiple sorties, they finally located the zombie horde hidden in the mountains and forests.

Before dispatching troops to carry out the clearing mission, Yao Guang sent fighter jets to reconnoiter the situation in the area once again.

After determining the activity range of these zombie hordes, Yao Guang began to calculate how many troops needed to be dispatched to quickly and safely dig a 70-meter-wide firebreak outside the 10-kilometer radius circle.

When Lorraine finished clearing out the silicon-based creatures in the mine, Yaoguang had already dispatched 12,000 Guardian robots to dig a firebreak outside the circle.

With the help of robots and advanced logging facilities, large tracts of trees were quickly felled.

After three days of tireless work by 12,000 robots, large tracts of forest had been felled.

As Yao Guang was looking at the pile of trees and figuring out how to deal with them, she received a message from Lorraine asking for help.

"Does the underground base still have materials for producing high-grade concrete? I need some high-specification sleepers."

Although Yaoguang wanted to provide support to Lorraine, the reality was that the concrete materials in the base had already been put to use, while the equipment used for mining limestone remained in storage.

However, she could provide Lorraine with some wooden sleepers, although with current technology, these wooden sleepers would take at least a week to be shipped.

The jungle that the robots are currently clearing is a mixed coniferous and broadleaf forest belt, and among the trees that have been felled, there are quite a few pine trees suitable for making wooden railway sleepers.

Upon receiving the message, Lorraine shook his head helplessly and could only focus his attention on the two small war behemoths beneath the mine.

Over the next few days, helicopters made even more frequent trips, transporting large quantities of standard-compliant pine logs back to Red Maple Island and sending them to the underground base for processing.

After being dried and treated with preservatives, these railway sleepers are loaded into containers and transported to Kanna by the Vanguard-class transport ships.

When the first batch of sleepers reached the usage standard, the firebreaks had already been felled, and the trees that were not needed for the time being had been moved to the forest and stored.

Meanwhile, the 12,000 Guardian robots hid in the outer jungle, raising their electromagnetic machine guns and electromagnetic cannons and aiming at the jungle 80 meters away.

After confirming that all friendly units had taken cover in suitable positions, a three-aircraft formation consisting of one Qianlong fighter jet carrying thermobaric bombs and two other Qianlong fighter jets carrying napalm bombs took off from the airport and headed straight for Lania Island.

Upon reaching the attack start point, the lead aircraft carrying thermobaric bombs and two wingmen carrying napalm bombs separated and operated separately.

After descending, the lead aircraft, carrying thermobaric bombs, headed straight for the heart of the jungle.

The two wingmen circled around the attack's starting point, waiting for the thermobaric bombs to explode before dropping napalm bombs on the outer edge of the circular jungle.

Dive, drop bombs, climb.

The bomb exploded at a distance from the treetops, ejecting the high explosive charge rich in fuel from the bomb to form an explosive cloud with a radius of 25 meters.

One ten-thousandth of a second later, the explosive cloud began to burn with oxygen.

A fraction of a second later, a massive amount of energy was released, forming an extremely powerful high temperature, high pressure, and a blazing fireball.

Finally, a fiery red mushroom cloud rose from the ground.

The shockwave swept past the treetops and into the distance, but fortunately, the trees were firmly rooted and were not shaken by the powerful shockwave.

After the shockwave subsided slightly, a dark gray clearing, more than 300 meters in diameter, appeared in the center of this circular jungle.

Subsequently, the two wingmen lowered their altitude and flew around the area from both sides, dropping all 10 tons of napalm bombs they were carrying onto the edge of the jungle.

Although the napalm bombs sealed off the edges, some huge zombie cows or zombie sheep still managed to escape as soon as the flames started to ignite.

But before they could get very far, they were riddled with holes by a dense barrage of steel nails and a 40mm high-explosive shell.

With the aid of two types of incendiary bombs, the 300-square-kilometer jungle was burned to ashes in just three hours.

Two hours after the flames died down, the Guardian Robot emerged from the outer jungle, machine gun in hand, and stepped through the still-warm ashes into the dark gray forest to inspect the situation inside.

After confirming that all the zombies in the area had been burned to ashes, almost all the Guardian Robots left the scene in Peregrine 35 helicopters, leaving behind only some Guardian Robots used to move trees and hunting dogs to prevent the forest from reigniting.

In this way, this large island of 7.2 square kilometers has become a pristine land with a few black spots.

However, since the island has a vegetation coverage of 90% and a rich variety of animal resources, Yao Guang still sends out small patrol teams to search for and kill any zombie animals that have been missed.

The next thing Yaoguang needs to do is simple: deploy unmanned equipment on a large scale to start mining and resume production.

A series of energy stations will be built using floating wind power systems to provide energy for these unmanned vehicles.

Once resources are plentiful, Yaoguang will also build a hydroelectric power station here to provide sufficient electricity for future development, while also replacing the floating wind power system that is not suitable for long-term operation.

When the focus shifted back to the flagship, the portable 203mm electromagnetic railgun developed by Lorraine and Ouyang Nian had been deployed deep within the crater and connected to the flagship's power system, ready to launch an attack once fully charged.

One hour and 15 minutes later, the five capacitor arrays next to each cannon had been fully charged, and the batteries that power the electronic systems of the two cannons were also fully charged.

All preparations were completed, and the mechanical dogs controlled the mechs back to the flagship. The two electromagnetic cannons below the tunnel were activated only after the flagship had left the mine for 15 kilometers.

The first shot fired was a solid armor-piercing shell, which was responsible for breaking through the rocks blocking the muzzle and the giant beast.

The next four shots were conventional armor-piercing high-explosive rounds.

After the five sets of capacitors were depleted and the temperature sensor on the cannon determined that the surrounding temperature was normal, Lorraine and Ouyang Nian drove the flagship back to the mine's dock.

Subsequently, two specially made winches were transported by a robotic arm on the top of the cabin to a flatbed truck inside the cabin, and then towed to a designated location by a robotic dog.

After going back and forth five or six times, the mechanical dogs, with the assistance of the engineering robots, finally managed to firmly fix the four specially made winches next to the two huge openings.

With the connection of the floating wind power generation system, these four specially made winches began to slowly rotate, releasing eight thick steel cables.

These two tunnels, each over 9 meters in diameter, were large enough for the mechs to enter. With the help of the mechs, the eight steel cables, each weighing tons, were firmly secured to the two giant beasts.

The engineering robots followed behind the mechs, using mortar to solidify the tunnel surface into a relatively smooth ground.

While waiting for the mortar to cure, specially made engineering machinery was also driven out of the ship's hold and arrived near the tunnel.

"Buzz~"

After the mortar hardened, the mechs exited the pit, and several engineering robots entered the pit. Then, the winch began to turn, slowly pulling out this extremely heavy war behemoth.

The entire process lasted from early morning until afternoon before the two war behemoths were finally pulled out from 50 meters underground.

Subsequently, several huge lampposts were erected, and a large number of unmanned units dispersed in the surrounding area.

Once all security measures were in place, under the warm orange sunlight, specially designed engineering machinery began to dissect the behemoth according to the methods described in the encyclopedia.

However, their hardness far exceeded Lorraine and others' expectations. By the time the first nuclear-powered furnace was removed two days later, the airport located southwest of the flagship and its surrounding area had been completely cleared by unmanned units that had arrived by transport plane.

During these two days, neither Luo Lin nor Ouyang Nian were idle.

One piloted a reconnaissance plane that circled over the entire city, while the other meticulously investigated the operation of the anti-gravity unit in a research lab.

After two days of exploration, Lorraine discovered that this city was indeed a good resource-based city.

Its surrounding area has two coal mining areas with extremely high output, two iron ore mining areas with extremely high output, a complete and large-scale iron ore smelting plant area, and a relatively advanced shipyard with a 2-ton dry dock.

One of the iron ore deposits is located southwest of the port, and can be reached by traveling 8 kilometers along the railway line that runs from the outskirts of the city next to the port.

Another iron ore production area is located next to a smelter. Starting from the port, you can travel 3.2 kilometers northwest along the railway to reach the shipyard. Further on, you will find another coal mining area and a steel smelter.

According to data from the Cleveland database, almost all the factories in the city produce shipbuilding equipment, meaning that the city can almost independently build a civilian vessel.

Moreover, the city doesn't have many cultural resources to preserve, so clearing out the zombies is quite simple; all that's needed is to bombard them with concentrated artillery fire.

Currently reading: Chapter 208: Artillery barrage and incendiary bombs, latest chapter available here.