Retreat

"Commander!" At Hengtian Base, a communications officer relayed the latest orders from the White House bigwigs.

"Fuck!" After reading the order, the commander cursed and hurled it onto the command table.

"Clear the base immediately! Transfer everyone and everything that can be moved to a safe location! They're going to bomb us with a nuclear missile!!"

"Yes, sir!"

After seeing everyone in the base spring into action, the commander couldn't help standing by the window and looking down. He muttered, "At least those congressional bigwigs have a little conscience."

After finishing his speech, he straightened his hat, took out the corn cob pipe identical to that of his idol, Five-Star General MacArthur, lit it with great flamboyance, and opened the door. He stood at the stairs, put on his sunglasses with equal flair, then glanced around before descending and boarding the plane that had already been prepared.

If Five-Star General MacArthur had been standing there and witnessed this scene, he would certainly have pointed and shouted, "That boy is just like me!"

The Blood Angels were incredibly fast. This didn't just refer to their running speed—it also applied to their learning speed.

By consuming certain body parts that contained memories from before death, they acquired fragments of the corpses' memories and learned skills.

Driving was one such skill!

But with the physique of Astartes, on top of wearing armor, the cars with those little Japanese bodies were simply too cramped to fit them.

Thus, the Tech-Sergeant quickly tore apart the entire front frames of several trucks, along with anything else that got in the way.

He didn't even leave the seats!

After all, they were just ordinary gasoline-powered vehicles. Even if a bullet blew up the fuel tank, it wouldn't kill them. What was there to fear?

And so, six trucks rattled onto the road.

But the tires, unable to bear the weight, began voicing their protest.

Taking the Astartes' total weight into consideration, the Tech-Sergeant removed the brakes entirely, leaving only the accelerator.

One stomp, and it went all out!

Because of the Astartes' weight, the vehicles only began slowly accelerating after several minutes!

They had previously been near the city center, but even when there were cars on the road, they hadn't used them. All those vehicles had been abandoned there, creating such severe traffic jams that it was impossible to pass.

So, as they neared the suburbs and saw that the number of vehicles on the road had fallen enough for a large cargo truck to pass through,

all the Blood Angels followed Quan Tiehua's suggestion and had the Tech-Sergeants modify ten trucks or lorries within a few minutes.

They traveled without obstruction!

In just over ten minutes, they passed through a tunnel and entered the Oudomo Mountains.

The roofs of every truck had basically been cut away. Otherwise, considering the Astartes' weight and the space they occupied, a single truck couldn't carry many of them.

All the Astartes sat in silence, watching the scenery flash past and the lush green mountains in the distance.

It could be said that from the moment they were born until they came to this world, almost none of them had ever seen scenery this beautiful.

Some Astartes had originally been born into Imperial nobility, but in an environment of hive cities, aside from sunlight and clouds that were slightly yellowish or greenish, there was basically nothing but endless steel jungles.

Of course, there were also Garden Worlds. But even the scenery of those Garden Worlds couldn't compare to this beautiful view from Earth!

After all, in the broadest sense, they could be considered humans of Earth too.

"This world is so beautiful! If it could become our chapter's homeworld, that would be incredibly fortunate." One Astartes wanted to remove his helmet to feel the air and take in the scenery. But he didn't do so, because the danger had not yet passed. Thus, his voice rang through the communications channel with a hint of regret.

Quan Tiehua looked at the familiar scenery he hadn't seen in over ten years and sighed. "It really is beautiful. But I think that, in the future, we'll have planets like this as our homeworlds—and many, many of them. Without Imperial parasites sent to destroy and exploit them, they'll belong entirely to our chapter!"

No one responded. They all yearned for it inwardly, but saying so aloud would make them seem insufficiently loyal to the Imperium.

"Something's wrong up ahead!"

The vehicle at the very front suddenly issued a warning. When the others, who had still been admiring the scenery, heard it, they jumped out of the trucks without caring whether the vehicles could stop.

The Astartes in the driver's seat immediately swerved and rammed the vehicle into the mountainside.

After the truck finally came to a stop from the impact, he shoved aside the twisted supports and climbed out. "There's something going on ahead." As he spoke, the brother removed his helmet, closed his eyes, and sniffed carefully. "The scent ahead is very strange. It's somewhat similar to the aura of those two monsters in the city, but also somewhat different!"

"Don't take the main road. Let's go over the mountain and have a look." Quan Tiehua glanced around before looking at the mountainside.

After all, taking the main road would make it easy for people to spot them. But what about going over the mountain? Besides, satellite positioning might not be able to see them through the trees. More importantly, their Power Armour also possessed a degree of stealth capability.

Deep in the mountains, there was a huge valley. Trees concealed the surroundings, but one particularly obvious steep slope bore clear signs of artificial construction.

At that moment, on the slope was an area nearly the size of a football field. The leaves had long since been swept clean, and the soil had been removed, revealing a large door covered by camouflage netting beneath it.

The door covered by the camouflage netting had already been opened, but the netting still lay across it.

"This is the place. Looks like they're transporting something?"

As he spoke, one corner of the camouflage netting was suddenly thrown aside. A heavily armed little Japanese soldier stepped out and began surveying the surroundings.

Only after several minutes did he press the communicator beside his ear and speak into the earpiece.

Several more minutes passed before a roar echoed out.

One fully sealed cargo truck after another began driving out from the dark tunnel behind the door.

"What are they carrying in those trucks?"

"It feels like a humanoid object, but there's a very strong smell of blood mixed with machinery. It seems these mortals may have used the flesh and blood of the two monsters in the city, along with the machine fighting those monsters, to create some kind of biological weapon!"

Quan Tiehua froze, then immediately thought of the Crimson Typhoon-like black obsidian mech that had appeared in Pacific Rim: Uprising.

The villainous mech's cockpit was controlled entirely by a brain cultivated from monster genes. Back then, when he had been young, it had looked unbelievably cool to him.

Could it be that the people from Shao Corporation back then had held shares owned by these little Japanese? But then he remembered those things resembling tiny nanobugs that had appeared at the end of Pacific Rim: Uprising, inside the Shao Corporation base in the little Japanese capital.

These little Japanese had already been researching all kinds of biotechnology. After the monsters arrived, their biotech had probably advanced by leaps and bounds.

It was highly likely that the little Japanese had contacted the Precursors on the other side of the wormhole. But it was also possible the contact had been indirect. After all, these little Japanese had wanted to conquer the world for more than just a day or two.

To all the esteemed readers, I'm adding another chapter today.