Pale blue plumes tore across the silent night sky as two enormous transport planes appeared above Sandbar Island.
This island was the second-largest natural island in the southern seas, famed for its vast golden beaches. Its roughly 400 square kilometers of land were home to seventy thousand people—about half the area of Singapore in the real world, with just over 1% of its population.
Unlike the narrow, crowded artificial island of Ring Island, this place was somewhat similar to North Island and Anle Island, with much of its tropical natural scenery still preserved.
Most of the island's residents lived on the relatively elevated southern side, where two- and three-story modern buildings stood in orderly clusters along both sides of the ring road.
Since there was no airport on the island, the Burning Corps could only land on the waters surrounding it.
Plasma plumes from the engines skimmed the sea, and the scorched waves gave off wisps of white vapor.
The transport bay doors opened downward. A steel landing craft slid along its rails to the edge of the cargo bay, where twelve players in exoskeletons stood ready. Mounted at the craft's front were a 12mm machine gun and a coaxial 60mm grenade launcher.
The former was mainly intended for light targets on the water's surface, while the latter had been specifically designed for soft underwater targets such as frogmen.
The pressure-sensor-equipped 60mm underwater grenades used metallic hydrogen charges. Upon nearing their targets, they detonated at tremendous velocity, relying on shockwaves to kill nearby enemies.
This landing craft had primarily been designed for amphibious operations on North Island and in Haiya Province. Thus, aside from underwater grenades, its 60mm grenade launcher could also fire standard fragmentation grenades to suppress ground targets.
Although the chairman, CEO, and factory director of Goblin Technology