Departure! (Bonus Chapter—Please Follow and Vote!)

At this moment, the massive Expeditionary Force had finished assembling.

On a plain near the Main Base, a total of forty thousand clones, riding in more than three thousand vehicles of various types, began advancing at the same time.

For a moment, the ground itself seemed to tremble faintly.

Among those three thousand-plus vehicles were three hundred fully enclosed double-decker trucks specifically used to transport personnel.

These trucks had cargo compartments twenty meters long, three meters wide, and four meters high, divided into two levels with a ceiling height of two meters each.

Each level had an interior area of sixty square meters and could seat fifty clones, making one hundred per truck.

Such a cramped, narrow space was obviously unsuitable for ordinary people. But for clones, it did not matter.

In any case, Li Qingsong would not connect to their consciousnesses during transport. They only needed to sit obediently in place.

The three hundred troop carriers transported thirty thousand clones, while the remaining ten thousand were distributed among the other vehicles.

There were five hundred tanks, with three crew members each, for a total of fifteen hundred people.

There were five hundred Armored Vehicles, with four people each, making two thousand.

There were two hundred Artillery Vehicles, with three people each, making six hundred.

There were also large trucks specifically for hauling supplies. Each could carry one hundred tons of cargo—machine-gun ammunition, artillery shells, fuel, emergency medicine, pure oxygen, methane, meat, grains, vegetables, and more—one thousand trucks in all.

That came to a total of one hundred thousand tons of supplies!

Beyond that were various specialized vehicles, such as ambulances, mobile kitchen trucks, repair vehicles, lead vehicles, and so on.

More than three thousand vehicles and forty thousand clones had all gathered together and set off on their expedition!

Following a route that had been surveyed in advance, the main force advanced at an average speed of roughly thirty kilometers per hour.

A smaller detachment moved faster, at around sixty kilometers per hour, arriving ahead of the main force.

After traveling for only two hours, the detachment stopped.

Thousands of logistics clones, wearing spacesuits, jumped out of their vehicles. They removed large quantities of crates from supply trucks, unpacked them, took out the components inside, and began setting up camp directly on Luoshen Star's desolate, lifeless ground.

Before long, a massive fully enclosed metal tent had been erected.

It had an interior area of five hundred square meters and could accommodate five hundred people dining at once.

The clones erected a full one hundred such metal tents in less than an hour.

While the tents were being set up, the rest of the work was already underway.

The kitchen clones drove enormous mobile kitchen trucks, took out basket after basket of ingredients, and began processing them on the spot. They quickly cooked the food in huge pots, stoves, and steamers, then packed it into measured individual portions.

All forty thousand meals were completed in less than two hours.

At that moment, the slowly advancing main force arrived at the camp at precisely the right time—not early, not late.

After parking in the open areas reserved in advance, the clones rose in an orderly fashion and passed through the constructed corridors, getting out without needing to wear spacesuits and entering the "dining hall."

Each clone picked up a meal and ate while walking. By the time they reached the edge of the tent, they had finished eating and arrived right at the restroom entrance.

They went in, took three minutes to relieve themselves, then came out and followed another passage back to the troop carriers, where they obediently took their seats again.

Meals and rest were handled quickly and efficiently through this assembly-line process.

Other clones who had finished eating earlier swiftly carried out safety inspections on every vehicle, checking whether any faults had appeared during the previous journey.

Still others dragged over long hoses and pumped methane and liquid oxygen into the vehicles' enormous fuel tanks.

The forty-thousand-strong force carried out multiple tasks simultaneously. Everything was orderly, without the slightest chaos.

On Earth, leading a force of forty thousand people forward—even doing half as well as Li Qingsong was doing now—would have required at least a general, assisted by a massive staff team.

There were simply too many complicated matters involved.

When to set up camp, when to rest, how to handle drinking water, how to handle restroom breaks, what to do if vehicles fell behind, what to do if they broke down, what to do if someone caused trouble...

If even one small detail went wrong, the entire force could descend into chaos.

Ordinary people simply could not coordinate it.

Yet for Li Qingsong, commanding a massive force of forty thousand people and more than three thousand vehicles was effortless.

After a total of an hour and a half, all Rest and Reorganization work had been completed. Every clone of the main force was back in position, and the convoy rumbled onward once more.

The logistics clones remained behind, swiftly dismantling everything, packing all the supplies back into crates, and loading them onto the trucks. Aside from scattered tire tracks and footprints, they left behind no trace of humanity.

Not even the clones' feces were left behind.

That stuff was excellent for preparing Nutrient Solution for soilless plant cultivation. How could they possibly waste it here?

An hour after the main force departed, the logistics team had completed all preparations.

That convoy then set off at high speed as well. It eventually overtook the main force and once again arrived at the next campsite two hours ahead of them, where the earlier scene repeated itself.

Other than Rest and Reorganization every four hours, the entire force traveled without stopping through the night. Though their speed was only thirty kilometers per hour, they still covered a full six hundred kilometers in one day.

Because they had taken a slight detour, the total distance had increased from the original one thousand kilometers to thirteen hundred kilometers.

At their current speed, the Expeditionary Force would reach the battlefield in less than thirty hours.

Time passed quietly. Reports from the forward reconnaissance clones indicated that the movements of their Expeditionary Force had not affected those strange birds in the slightest.

The Small Plains remained a boiling frenzy, filled everywhere with flying strange birds. The commotion could be detected from more than a hundred kilometers away.

Compared to that, the noise made by Li Qingsong's convoy was hardly noticeable.

The Expeditionary Force was now about to arrive. Its vehicles began spreading out and parking around the Small Plains.

Large numbers of Artillery Vehicles were towed into their designated positions, their barrels adjusted in preparation for bombardment.

Large numbers of tanks and Armored Vehicles mapped out their routes and prepared to charge the flock of strange birds.

Most important were the machine-gun positions.

A large number of High-Rate Machine Guns were aimed not only at the strange birds on the Small Plains, but a considerable portion were also pointed toward the sky.

Li Qingsong did not yet have dedicated air-defense forces, so he could only make do with machine guns for now.

Bonus chapter—please vote and keep reading!