Pillar of Fire Soaring Skyward

Because they had nearly come to blows earlier, the atmosphere between Barricade and Onslaught immediately became awkward.

Under cover of night, Onslaught and Barricade quietly approached Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. They waited patiently outside the military cordon, five kilometers away, for long-range communication from Bonecrusher.

Sun Cheng, however, was not with them.

Tasked with destroying the base's external communications equipment at the first opportunity, he had entered the base ahead of them through the abandoned tunnel where Onslaught had previously hidden. Inside a barracks closest to the communications station, he transformed back into a tape recorder and patiently waited for the signal to attack.

More than twenty minutes later, his [Spy Template] flickered. Having finally received the attack signal, Sun Cheng immediately leaped out of the barracks and rushed toward the communications station.

Almost the instant he jumped out, Sun Cheng instinctively glanced into the distance and heard a violent explosion erupt.

He stopped and looked over, only to see a flash of light rise in the distance. In the blink of an eye, it slammed into the military camp, instantly destroying a C-17 transport plane that had not yet entered its hangar. Explosions rang out one after another.

"...These guys..."

Sun Cheng was somewhat irritated. He had repeatedly told them to wait until he had completely cut off the communications equipment before launching a full assault on the base, yet they had ignored his arrangements entirely.

Angry as he was, he knew war was no joke.

He quickened his pace and soon reached the communications station. Seeing two American soldiers standing guard at the entrance, Sun Cheng moved both hands at once and fired two poisoned darts at the alert soldiers, killing them instantly.

The door to the communications station was locked, but that posed no challenge to him.

Transforming a finger into a steel rod, he inserted it into the lock. The next moment, he opened it, kicked the door in, and burst into the room packed with communications equipment, wrecking everything in sight.

Only after confirming it could not possibly be repaired did he leave and head for the aircraft hangars.

"Enemy attack..."

"The communications equipment... all communications equipment has failed..."

"Oh, God..."

"Damn it, we're under attack!"

"...Support! We need support here!"

Piercing cries rang endlessly throughout the base. Sun Cheng released more than a dozen insect scouts in succession so that he could keep a firm grasp on the situation inside the base.

Soon, reports from one battle after another were transmitted into his [Spy Template].

At the front of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Onslaught had already transformed into his humanoid form. Standing a hulking seven or eight meters tall, he held a massive gun and steadily pushed into the base at an unhurried pace.

The massive gun in his hand periodically flashed with blinding blue light as it fired at various targets. Every explosion completely destroyed at least one aircraft.

Clearly, the aircraft explosion Sun Cheng had seen earlier was Onslaught's doing.

Compared with Onslaught's steady advance, Barricade's combat style was completely different.

When one of Sun Cheng's insect scouts caught sight of him, the guy had not even transformed. Still in police-car form, he sped straight into the base at high speed.

American bullets struck his vehicle body, throwing up sparks from time to time, but they could not harm him at all.

After charging into the cluster of American aircraft that had not yet taken off, he forcefully endured the dense gunfire and transformed into his humanoid form. Then, viciously wielding the spiked weapon in his hand, he smashed one F-15 in half with a single blow. With another swing, he pulverized the nose of another plane, and the flying debris even crushed a ground support vehicle when it hit the ground.

Whoosh...

A Stinger surface-to-air missile launched from nearby and struck Barricade with precision. The tremendous impact made him stagger back several steps.

Yet that was all it did.

Clearly, this type of surface-to-air missile, which was not designed for armored targets, simply could not penetrate the alloy armor of Barricade's body.

Even so, the dense gunfire and explosions constantly reminded Sun Cheng that the American soldiers stationed here had not been frightened into submission. They were still organizing a counterattack.

I need to hurry...

After reminding himself internally, Sun Cheng accelerated as well and headed toward the hangars he remembered.

Although the Decepticons were individually powerful mechanical lifeforms, they were not invincible.

Not only could human-made nuclear weapons kill high-ranking Decepticons, but some of the heavy weapons equipped by human militaries—including high-explosive bombs, depleted-uranium armor-piercing shells from tanks, certain anti-ship missiles, and surface-to-air missiles—could also inflict considerable damage on them.

This was one reason they had been so eager to destroy humanity's air power at the very start of their operation.

Passing an ammunition depot, Sun Cheng quickly rushed inside. After repeatedly flinging several poisoned darts containing radioactive elements and killing a few American soldiers, he found some C4 explosives used by the U.S. military and immediately set them up throughout the depot.

Then he fled as though for his life. He had only just burst into a hangar when a thunderous boom sounded from not far behind him. Boom...

As the ammunition depot, which stored countless weapons and shells, suddenly exploded, a pillar of fire shot into the sky, instantly illuminating the entire base as bright as day.

"Not good..."

The power of the ammunition depot's explosion exceeded Sun Cheng's expectations. He was simply too inexperienced.

At first, based on what he had seen in movies, Sun Cheng had thought that blowing up the ammunition depot would merely cripple part of the defenders' combat strength.

But this scene resembled a nuclear explosion. It could probably be seen faintly even dozens of kilometers away. It was not hard to imagine that American reinforcements would arrive faster and in greater numbers than expected, so they had to speed up their mission.

He hurriedly destroyed the electronic equipment of more than a dozen aircraft inside the hangars. Just as he left one hangar and prepared to continue his sabotage, a violent explosion suddenly erupted at his new target. Looking up, Sun Cheng realized it was Onslaught. This Decepticon warrior, whose combat power was simply off the charts, had slaughtered his way in from the main gate, destroying nearly half the base's resistance forces by himself.

"Lord Onslaught..."

Sun Cheng hurried over. Onslaught grabbed him and placed him on his shoulder.

"We need to move faster. That explosion just now was too conspicuous!"

"Got it. Leave the stalling to me!"

Turning back, Onslaught fired a shot that blasted apart an F-15 fighter jet that had already left the hangar and was preparing for an emergency takeoff. He buzzed as he spoke, while sending a transmission to Barricade nearby.

As soon as the transmission was sent, Barricade immediately transformed back into his police car form and sped over to the two of them.

"Get in..."

Barricade's projected figure urged Sun Cheng impatiently. He nodded to Onslaught, jumped down from his shoulder, and climbed into the front passenger seat.

"Vroom, vroom..."

Amid waves of roaring engine noise, Barricade immediately carried Sun Cheng at high speed toward the missile storage depot they had detected.