"There are around a million soldiers." The adviser had always been keeping watch of the data in Base 013 so he was able to answer the question immediately.
"A base usually only has a month's worth of supplies for 300 thousand soldiers. Now, there are three times more soldiers. After 16 days, they must have reached their limit." The commander-in-chief sneered. "Ailan is a base where we store our supplies, right?"
"Yes. From the information we received, Ailan had become a logistics base," the adviser replied as he looked at his commander-in-chief with respect.
"The supplies should be still on the way back to their base!" The commander-in-chief was certain. "We must stop them."
They must not let Base 013 get the supplies. What he wanted was a harmless base that could be easily broken when it needed to be. He didn't want a base filled with well-rested and energetic soldiers who were able to fight with them fiercely."When was the last time Base Ailan contacted the other bases?" The commander-in-chief looked intently at the huge 3D map.
"Ten minutes ago," the adviser hurriedly replied.
"They should be here now!" The commander-in-chief pointed at the area between Base Ailan and their first line of defense. His eyes turned cold as he gave his new order. "Order all the bases on the first line of defense to send an army to move towards Base Ailan. We must destroy this bunch of bastards." How dare these people to provoke them. They must pay the price for it.
"Yes, commander-in-chief." The adviser took the order and left.
The commander-in-chief looked at Major General Luo Qi and his cold aura suddenly disappeared. He smiled and said, "Major General Luo Qi, I forgot to ask you if you have anything else to add on."
"I'm wondering if it's possible that they have already reached this area." Luo Qi pointed at the area between Base 013 and the first line of defense.
"That's impossible. The mainframe of Base Ailan lost contact with us 10 minutes ago. Even if we give them the full ten minutes to retreat without dodging our patrols, they won't be able to reach here." The commander-in-chief smiled as he shook his head. The God-Killers were used to fighting small battles so they didn't understand how the mainframe worked. Unless the commanding officer of Base Ailan betrayed Hailiya, they wouldn't let their enemy transport the supplies out without informing the central command center.Anyone that was able to become the commanding officer of a base was loyal soldiers. They would never betray Hailiya.
"I see! It seems like I'm thinking too much." Major General Luo Qi only expressed his thoughts. Since the commander-in-chief said that it was impossible, he didn't probe further.
The two people continued discussing the situation for a while. After that, they made some arrangements. Major General Luo Qi left the central command center and returned to the camp of the God-Killers. He brought some people and flew towards the area around Base Ailan. They were here to cooperate with the other bases there and search for the thieves who stole their supplies. The commander-in-chief felt that their opponent must have at least sent out 15 to 20 mecha teams. If not, they wouldn't succeed. It wasn't hard to find such a huge number of people.
Soon, Luo Qi sent the various teams in God-Killers to different bases. He also led another team to Base Jiemi which was closest to Base 013. He waited there for the other teams to report their results from the search.
When a few teams reported that they didn't find any signs of any transport mechas, Luo Qi felt that something was amiss. The mainframe of the base contacted the other bases 10 minutes before the explosion. However, who could prove that during that time, the base still belonged to Hailiya at that time? Why couldn't it be already controlled by the Federation? They could have used fake news to fool them. The commanding officers of the bases went through many tests before they took on this position but after so many years on the battlefield, no one could be certain that he still remained loyal to Hailiya.
If the commanding officer betrayed Hailiya and opened the doors of his base to their opponents, the mainframe couldn't do anything too. It was not human. It didn't have the ability to think so it wouldn't know who was their enemy without the commanding officer's orders.
"There is a loophole!" If their opponent purposely delayed the time for an hour, the transport mechas would have reached the area between their bases and Base 013. Their action of patrolling the area near Base Ailan gave their opponents the chance to sneak away.
If this was true, the person who thought of this scheme was very smart. Unfortunately… malicious intent flashed passed Luo Qi's eyes. They couldn't fool him.
Luo Qi didn't inform anyone else with his revelation. He just led his team out of Base Jiemi and flew towards Base 013. Luo Qi felt that the transport mechas were in this area but he couldn't be 100% certain. Hence, he wanted to search this area first and confirm his suspicions. Of course, he was confident that if his team found the transport mechas, they would be able to slow them down, as his team was full of imperial operators. They just had to block their opponents and wait for reinforcements to arrive.
There was also another reason why Luo Qi acted secretly. Since the commander-in-chief said that their opponent was in the area between Base Ailan and their first line of defense, if he insisted on searching in another area, he would be humiliating the commander-in-chief. It was alright if his prediction was correct but if it was wrong, he would embarrass himself. Luo Qi was an arrogant person so he couldn't accept this.
"Hide!" The newest model of radar system Chang Xinyuan created allowed the transport team to evade another Hailiya's patrol.
"Leader Liu, after we cross this line of defense, we'll enter Base 013's territory." Han Jijyun looked at the small battle map on the screen as he whispered to Liu Furong.
"Yes. Once we enter Base 013's territory, we'll be safer. But, we are able to have such a smooth journey because our regiment commander attracted the attention of our enemies. They should be in danger now." Liu Furong frowned as he looked back at the direction where Base Ailan was at.
The patrols they met during this period of time were all heading towards Base Ailan. They just searched through this area haphazardly. Liu Furong had many battle experiences so he knew that Ling Lan must have done something to Base Ailan to cover them up.
Han Jijyun's expression darkened when they heard this. He said indifferently, "Our mission is to escort the supplies to the base safely. As for our Boss… I believe that he will be able to solve their crisis."
'Why aren't I stronger? If I were stronger, I would have been able to stay at the base along with Qi Long.' For the first time, Han Jijyun hated himself for being too weak. If he could, he wanted to become a mecha expert like Qi Long and stand beside their Boss in a battle.
