Aboard the Assault Transport bound for Budapest, Salomon quickly recovered after a brief emotional slump.
He pulled up the war briefing provided by satellite reconnaissance and began reviewing it, repeatedly verifying whether the strategic projections he had formulated matched the course of the battle. He calmly adjusted supply deployments and addressed wartime logistical needs. Not long ago, Victor von Doom had said that he treated war as a mathematical problem composed of shells, bullets, fuel, and blood. Now, that description seemed entirely accurate. The reason the war launched by the City of Immortals had gained the upper hand was that it had exploited its greatest advantage, pushing the conflict into a competition of advanced weaponry. It was a war puzzle that could be solved with mathematics.
The City of Immortals' war against Hungary resembled the Gulf War of 1991: a new kind of war defined by overwhelming air superiority and electronic superiority. The City of Immortals simply made greater use of beyond-visual-range strikes, because Salomon needed to seize the fruits of victory in the shortest possible time. He did not have the U.S. military's luxury of conducting prolonged, large-scale air raids over Iraq. To that end, he spared no expense. Stockpiled war supplies were being consumed at a terrifying rate, years of accumulated reserves pouring away like a flood. Even Stephanie Malik had needed anti-anxiety medication just to hold herself together.
Pápa Air Base, Kecskemét Air Base, and Szolnok Air Base had already suffered total destruction from missiles loaded with multiple types of warheads. Transport helicopter battalions, combat helicopter battalions, the First Air Defense Missile Group, and the Second Air Defense Missile Group had all been destroyed. The L-band solid-state active electronically scanned array 3D RAT-31DL radars used by the First Radar Center in Békéscsaba, the Second Radar Center in