"These goddamn animals..."
On the bridge of the Heart of Steel.
Gazing through the observation equipment at the pyramid of human heads and the blood smeared across the walls more than ten kilometers away, the captain of the Heart of Steel could not help but curse under his breath.
After glancing at the captain beside him, Chu Guang turned back toward the floor-to-ceiling windows of the bridge and spoke slowly.
"If they learn that this kind of provocation works, they'll soon build a second and third pyramid of heads. They might even slaughter everyone the moment they lose."
"These people are plenty enthusiastic when it comes to killing. There's no need for us to waste ammunition on something meaningless."
From a practical standpoint, indirect fire against a concrete-packed urban area had rather limited returns.
Not to mention howitzers that relied on shrapnel to kill, even strategic nuclear weapons with yields in the tens of thousands of tons were not as devastating against concrete shelters as films made them seem.
There were recorded cases where people inside concrete buildings just five or six hundred meters from an atomic blast's ground zero had survived. As long as they had not stupidly run outside to take a look, they had not even suffered any aftereffects.
Mutants were even less worth mentioning.
Such creatures could only be directly killed by excessive neutron radiation. Hoping to kill them indirectly through the later effects of cancer was unrealistic.
"...I understand." The captain nodded heavily.
At Chu Guang's signal, he looked toward the adjutant at his side and gave an order.
"Lower the anchor chains!"
The adjutant saluted.
"Yes!"
Massive steel anchor chains were dropped from the airship's belly, smashing heavily into the ground and kicking up billowing clouds of dust.
Then the elevators descended.
As the