Nuclear Warheads Secured

Click!

Although the U.S. military's missile storage depot had three layers of security, they were completely powerless before Sun Cheng's [Spy System]. He easily cracked them and opened the doors.

The warehouse was enormous—Barricade did not even need to transform back into his police car form to walk inside.

"We don't have much time. Let's split up and search!"

Following Barricade into the missile storage depot, Sun Cheng looked at the rows upon rows of racks and could only make that suggestion.

The missile storage depot at Davis-Monthan Base did not store only nuclear warheads. High-explosive aerial bombs requiring special storage, infrequently used air-launched cruise missiles, long-range air-to-air missiles, and more were all kept here.

Barricade nodded and took the lead toward the depths of the warehouse.

What they needed to find were AGM-129 strategic air-launched cruise missiles. General Dynamics had begun producing these strategic air-launched cruise missiles in 1987; they entered service in 1991, and a total of 478 had been produced before production ceased in 1993. They were one of the few types of missiles in the United States Air Force capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

Barricade moved quickly and soon vanished from Sun Cheng's sight.

Sun Cheng was not in much of a hurry to search. Spotting a small room resembling an office not far from the warehouse entrance, he thought for a moment before heading toward it.

Before he even reached the office door, his gaze sharpened.

The [Spy Template] had just picked up a faint sound, very much like the involuntary noise a human made when swallowing.

There's someone here...

Understanding dawned on him. This was an important missile storage depot, so it was impossible for there to be no personnel assigned to supervise it, conduct inspections, and prevent open flames.

Unlike the other Decepticons, Sun Cheng had come from another world and possessed a more cautious nature. To avoid being ambushed—or worse, having this missile depot detonated—once he sharply sensed people inside the office, he cautiously released more than a dozen groups of insect scouts. He directed two groups toward the office and scattered all the rest throughout the warehouse.

These nimble little fellows did not disappoint him. After one insect scout entered the sealed office through a ventilation duct, it quickly relayed the situation inside.

"Two men and one woman, armed only with pistols. Three clerks?"

One of the insect scouts noticed that someone in the office kept furtively peeking outside through the window. Clearly, they already knew that he and Barricade had entered the warehouse.

Since he had been exposed and already knew the situation inside the office, and more importantly, had discovered several computers there, Sun Cheng immediately grew interested. It likely meant the office contained storage records for all the missiles in the warehouse.

Sun Cheng immediately took out several poison darts and held them in his hand. Pretending not to have noticed anything, he wandered around nearby for a while before approaching the office. He first glanced inside through the window, then walked to the door.

The office's coded door was child's play to him. After cracking it with ease and sensing the people inside grow tense as well, he suddenly pushed open the door, accelerated, and leaped into the office. At the same time, he flung the poison darts clenched in his hand at the hiding soldiers.

With the insect scouts confirming their positions, his attack was not only ruthless but utterly decisive, accurately taking the lives of several U.S. soldiers.

"So they already knew about the changes outside?"

With a swift sweep of his eyes, everything in the office entered Sun Cheng's view.

The office was not large. Several desks were scattered around the room, each with a computer on it, along with one dedicated to receiving data from the closed-circuit surveillance cameras outside the warehouse.

Several satellite phones had been casually tossed about. Clearly, after witnessing the changes outside, the soldiers had made no shortage of attempts to contact the outside world.

Dragging the corpses outside, Sun Cheng leaped onto a chair, turned on the computers, and began searching through their data.

A minute or two later, after thoroughly going through everything, he jumped down with a strange expression on his face. He then turned on the other two computers and searched through them in turn. When he finished, he let out a long breath, blue light flickering intensely in his two electronic eyes.

"Damn, I'd heard before that the U.S. military's management was a mess. I never thought it was actually true..."

Not only in the real world, but even in this other world, the United States was the strongest nation on Earth. Its powerful military presence spread across the globe had always been admired by countless military enthusiasts.

Yet behind that shining halo, many problems also stood out. Back when Sun Cheng had been in the real world, he often saw news online about the U.S. military's chaotic management.

He had mostly taken such reports with a grain of salt before. Now, he understood that quite a few of them were probably true.

He could hardly believe that on these base computers, he had not only found the nuclear warhead storage data he wanted but had also unexpectedly come across a great deal of classified information.

For example, the precise specifications of AGM-129 strategic air-launched cruise missiles, AGM-86C air-launched cruise missiles, and partial maintenance and inspection diagrams for AGM-65 air-to-ground cruise missiles...

Though he was only half a military enthusiast, Sun Cheng still knew a thing or two. Data involving core weapons was strictly controlled even during logistical maintenance and storage.

For instance, in China in the real world, even ground maintenance procedures for certain aircraft were printed into manuals, and every copy was subject to strict real-name registration and management. Taking them away was absolutely forbidden, much less creating electronic versions and storing them on the computers of some base.

"Good stuff..."

They truly were good things. It was wishful thinking to imagine one could manufacture them based on this information alone, but if America's opponents obtained this data, it would be equivalent to stripping away the outer layers of a large number of current U.S. Air Force cruise missiles. Targeting them afterward would become far easier.

Sun Cheng had already packaged and copied all the data he had obtained, storing it in his memory chip. It was not particularly useful to him, but judging from what Starscream and the others were up to, they might one day wage an all-out war against the United States. Perhaps it would come in handy then.

The unexpected gains put him in an excellent mood. Following the data relayed by the insect scouts, Sun Cheng quickly found Barricade, who was still searching everywhere. "Lord Barricade, I found the storage location of the nuclear warheads. Please follow me..."

Barricade's irritated expression made it obvious that he had been driven nearly mad by the search. Even he understood that he could not act recklessly in a missile storage depot—one blast, and even he would be left lying here for good.

So when he heard that Sun Cheng had found where the nuclear weapons were stored, his expression immediately changed. "Well done..."

He gave Sun Cheng a rare compliment, then followed behind him toward a corner of the missile storage depot.

The Americans had built a concealed underground storage compartment in one corner of the missile depot. Five authorization codes had to be entered before the nuclear warheads stored underground could be raised by elevator.

This posed no difficulty for Sun Cheng. He quickly completed the task and successfully located four intact nuclear warheads originally intended to arm U.S. AGM-86C air-launched cruise missiles.

Sun Cheng was somewhat surprised that he had not found the nuclear warheads for the AGM-129 strategic air-launched cruise missiles, only several lower-yield ones.

However, seeing Barricade step forward with an excited expression, clearly preparing to carry them away, Sun Cheng realized he was quite satisfied even with these four W80-1 compact nuclear warheads, each with a yield of only 200 kilotons. Sun Cheng simply kept quiet.

"Onslaught, no need to keep them occupied any longer. Get to the missile depot and rendezvous with us immediately..."

Barricade was clearly growing greedy. He could take away at most two, but seeing that there were four in total, he immediately began thinking of taking them all.

"I understand..."

As the explosions drew closer, Onslaught quickly tore open the warehouse doors, shifted back into his ultra-heavy truck form, and charged inside.

"Take them all..." After saying that, Barricade picked up a nuclear warhead and carried it over to him.

Onslaught's chassis transformed, revealing enough storage space to hold the nuclear warheads.

Sun Cheng couldn't move something that massive, so he could only stand obediently to one side and watch them carry the warheads back and forth.

Once they were done, Barricade left two behind and transformed back into his police car form.

Sun Cheng had intended to leave with him, but after glancing inside and realizing there was no room for a passenger in the police car, he had no choice but to climb into Onslaught's cab.

Accompanied by the deafening roar of Rumble's engine, the looting mission was complete. All that remained was the return trip!