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"Don't rush, tell me slowly, what did you discover?"
"Report! I've spotted a large number of enemy vehicles heading in our direction! And...and more!"
"And what?!" Angelie thought to herself, "This is bad."
"Moreover, I don't think I've ever seen this chariot before!"
"Soldier! Hide right now, turn on your landline's camera, capture the footage, and send it to me! Quickly!"
"Everyone else! Prepare your weapons! Aim at the 3 o'clock position on the horizon!"
Angelie was getting restless. She quickly displayed all the tank photos stored in the database on the screen, waiting for the young man to send the images one by one for her to check—she wasn't sure if this newbie was just overreacting due to a lack of experience.
"Why hasn't it been sent yet? What are you doing?"
"I'm so sorry! The enemy is closing in, I... I need to hide first..."
"Hey! Angelie, look!" Ypel shouted. "That! Is that an enemy tank?!"
Just then, Angelie's database screen stopped at the remarks column of an unknown target, and the images sent by Ypel and the young man appeared on her screen almost simultaneously...
Even more terrifying is that the monsters appearing in the scene are beginning to correspond perfectly with the text in the notes section...
……
The "robust cannon barrels" had just been raised high like the spears of a Macedonian phalanx, extending out from behind the distant hill...
The vehicle, with its protruding wedge-shaped frontal armor, then tore through the light like a Greek warship, casting the gloom onto the land ahead...
And that "flat, hemispherical turret," like a giant round shield of a Spartan warrior, proudly displayed itself before everyone's eyes the instant the tank charged down the slope, dragging its rough and savage engine roaring...
"Oh my god!..."
Angelie's mouth dropped open in disbelief, because what appeared before them was...!
"Everyone! Retreat immediately! Get away from those tanks! Quickly!"
Before the words were even finished, the leading steel monster fired the first solid cannon shot, accompanied by the sound of a hammer, towards the KMFs. Immediately afterward, the cannonball streaked through the air and slammed hard between the two Sunderland figures that were huddled together. Like a turf being torn up by a stick, the two unfortunate puppets were uprooted, and small pieces with sparks were thrown back to the ground.
"Retreat! Retreat!—"
Angelie's voice was a little hoarse before the KMFs moved their feet and the drive wheels.
Just then, the young man she had sent to keep watch suddenly appeared, his plane carrying a recoilless rifle, and headed towards the side of the tank!
"Hey! What are you doing! Come back!"
The young man approached the flank, raised the cannon, and fired a shot at the side of the tank. A burst of firecrackers rang out, and the tank was instantly engulfed by a wave of fire and smoke.
"Hey!...Wait, something's not right?!" He discovered that the tank was still moving! That's right! It wasn't sliding due to inertia! It was operating normally, still correcting its course!
Then, the tank's turret hatch opened, and a soldier emerged, peeking out with his head sticking out. He glanced coldly at the spot where he had been hit, then looked at the KMF with disdain, raising his chin with a rather arrogant air.
"No, impossible!" The young man was stunned. Then, more engine roars came from the side. Looking in the direction of the sound, another identical tank appeared, and he aimed his gun at it...
……
The explosion startled the devastation on the ground.
"Report to command center! Important military intelligence! Repeat! Important military intelligence!" Angelie tried her best to stay calm in the cockpit while everyone else was busy retreating.
"We have encountered Soviet tanks codenamed Minotaur approximately seven kilometers northeast of Vernoishin! Repeat! We have encountered tanks codenamed Minotaur! Requesting backup!"
More Minotaur tanks emerged from behind the hillside, their heavy, sturdy tracks rolling over the thin grass, displaying their name to the world through the steel bonfires they stood before them—the IS-3 heavy tank.
Nothing could remain intact under the crushing weight of the tracks, and nothing was worth the D-25T tank gun pointing ahead. The steel skeletons, painted green, pushed aside the sparse tracks on the ground and continued to march along the neat ruts, carving out a wide one-way road to victory.
……
"Lieutenant! Are you all done?"
Angelie and her team had already joined up with a large group of KMFs and assault guns from the rear. According to the command center's orders, both sides in the air were now extremely busy, and the task of resisting the Minotaur had been assigned to them—however, Angelie felt that the first word should be changed to "delay".
"They're here! They're here! Form ranks and fire!"
Without further ado, the KMFs and assault guns opened fire on the moving figures in the distance. All sorts of shells flew towards the other side, trailing bright trajectories, landing on the ground or smashing into the Minotaur, creating a sea of heat and mud.
The clods of earth and rubble obscured everyone's view, and then, a Minotaur tank surprisingly emerged first, asserting its dominance over the already tense crowd. Another lead shot, another thunderous clang reminiscent of a hammer striking, and one 122mm shell after another burst forth from its barrel.
The KMFs, like withered petals and decaying branches, were swept away with a broom, leaving behind a trail of debris that whistled with final sparks; the assault guns, like hollowed-out rock layers, were smashed open with a pickaxe, leaving behind exploding hulls and turrets that flew and crashed down, warming the frigid early winter. Some Minotaur tanks began to stop in place due to track damage or other minor reasons, but only those black steel constructs were unilaterally ignited into torches. This land, already gradually carbonized under the rising smoke and fire, transformed into a vast bee colony in the successive craters.
"Cough... This won't do!" The major commanding the KMFs and assault guns couldn't sit still any longer, but he still wanted to stick to the orders from above. "Everyone! Advance! Assault guns, keep firing at the tanks! KMFs, get as close to the flanks as possible! Stop them even if you have to ram them!"
"Yes!"
The puppets were deployed, and the assault guns were also set off. Only Angelie, with her two girls, circled around to the flank of the battlefield, and it seemed that she had no intention of accelerating her charge.
"What are you doing! Lieutenant! I'm calling you..."
“I’m sorry, sir, but our Knights Order can choose not to completely obey your orders in certain circumstances.” Angeli hung up the communication and then privately instructed Lilizia and Ypel.
"Follow me. It seems we can't possibly stop the Minotaur. Take your cameras and record the entire battle."
"Ok!"
……
It's hard to say whether Angelina Jolie and the other two could remain calm in the cockpit when faced with such a helpless and tragic scene.
The KMFs were helpless against the advancing Minotaur, so much so that the tank crews crawled out of their turrets and formed a fire network with the machine guns on the roofs to deal with these fragile humanoid weapons. One after another, under the storm of bullets and the sparks from the constant impacts on their armor, the KMFs slowed down, fell, lost their arms or drive wheels, lost their weapons and sensors, and wandered aimlessly in this cruel battlefield inferno, constantly being crushed into scrap by belated shells.
And the assault guns? They could only move their sluggish bodies, trying to pierce the Minotaur's skin and bones with their limited high-explosive shells. The Minotaur's firepower was terrifying, its armor was despair-inducing, but the rate of fire of a single shell made one frown. So much so that before their second shell was even fired, one of the surviving assault guns was almost colliding head-on with the lead one.
Perhaps using its 20-30 ton vehicle to block these monsters was the only option? However, even this desperate counterattack was ruthlessly repelled. The moment the assault gun and the IS-3 collided, the latter continued to advance steadily, while the assault gun, like a wheeled suitcase hitting a wall and bouncing back, was directly pushed back by the green steel armor in the direction it had come from!
With one wheel knocked off, the outcome of this metal-on-metal brawl was no longer in doubt. The Minotaur pushed the poor thing sideways and, like a bulldozer moving mud, sent it straight into a large crater that had appeared out of nowhere. Just as the Minotaur was gone and the assault gun crew tried to escape through the hatch, they saw another tank following closely behind. Its convex wedge-shaped front hull leaped up like the head of a great white shark before their eyes, and in the shadow of its approach, it slammed down, leaving a bloody, fleshy track mark on the mangled metal head.
……
There was no need for further action; defeat was inevitable. The approaching KMF aircraft were intercepted by Soviet fighter planes. No one could stop the Minotaur's advance.
As for the three girls, Lilizia's machine was about to fire its recoilless cannon, but then she sighed and reluctantly put it down.
"Shall we leave now?"
"Yes, as fast as possible." With Angelina's words, the three of them, no longer caring about the major's life or death, hurriedly left.
"Well, Lilizia, is there something you need?"
"I... feel a little unwell..." The white-haired girl in the black Gloucester had no expression on her face, just drooping her head.
"It feels like... my past and present have shattered like pieces of a puzzle..."
Chapter 118, Section 177: A Shameful Day on Great Britain
If war breaks out again on the European continent, it means that this land, along with the vast ocean surrounding its coastline, will be affected, and what about the islands at sea? They will inevitably be affected as well.
Berlin, the capital of Germany.
London, the capital of Great Britain.
The distance between the Reichstag building and Big Ben is 930 kilometers, spanning the North Sea and most of Central and Western Europe.
While the former was only a few steps away from complete collapse, the latter, far away in the British Isles, was also forced to succumb to a desolate state.
……
The harsh winter winds of the Atlantic cast dark clouds over Crawley—a small town of less than a thousand people, located 43 kilometers south of London. To its north lies the future world-famous Gatwick Airport, which was requisitioned by the military during World War II and used as a shared air base by the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Corps until it returned to commercial use in 46.
Right now, on one side of the airbase tarmac, a Li-2 transport plane painted with a red star and a C-47 transport plane painted with a white star are parked side by side, their noses giving an aggressive glance to a few British personnel playing highland bagpipes.
As for the people who came out of the plane? They were already sitting in a building near the airport that had been cleared of loiterers.
……
There were three sets of tables in the hall, located in three directions: east, west, and north. In front of the head table in each direction, there was a small flag of the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom, respectively.
Several important figures were seated at the British table: Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevan was at the head of the table, with Air Marshal James Robb, the Air Chief Marshal and Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Air Force Fighter Force, to his right; and to his left was Air Chief Marshal Portamley, Chief of the Royal Air Force Bomber Force. On the other side of the general was General Brian Robinson, the Deputy Military Governor of the British Forces in Germany, who had just returned to the UK two days prior to report on his duties.
So who were the guests at the other two tables? Behind the Stars and Stripes sat John Winnant, the U.S. Ambassador to the UK, accompanied by a U.S. Major General stationed in the UK.
After the hammer and sickle, the big guy took the lead. Comrade Molotov, the Soviet Foreign Minister, sat there with several generals and officials, attending this verbal battle.
Meanwhile, most of the supporting actors from all three sides sat quietly in the back row, remaining silent.
Why were they here? Simply because of two requests for negotiation from the Soviet Union a few days earlier.
The British in London received a barrage of accusations and evidence from the Soviet embassy regarding their possible involvement in Germany, while the Americans received the same account from their Soviet ambassador. After several consultations and some back and forth, everyone present was sent to this rather secretive location.
This is a matter concerning the future of three major powers, the European continent, and even the world, so it must never be made public or disclosed to the public.
The people on the island of Great Britain had no idea what was happening inside the house.
……
“So I think we’ve made ourselves very clear, gentlemen.” Molotov adjusted his glasses. “Could you turn your words around here? You are now highly suspected of attacking our troops in Germany and causing considerable casualties. So I’ve come all this way not to listen to your muddy talk that’s not even useful for building walls.”
“Of course we understand your Soviet stance, Mr. Molotov,” Bevin said. “But everything must be based on evidence, even a death sentence for a criminal, which must be based on the premise that his crime can be confirmed. And the evidence we have provided, I think you have already seen it: from the very beginning of the Berlin Incident, our British soldiers have been killed. How could we fight ourselves?”
“That’s right, that’s how it is.” Portemley continued, glancing again at the list on the table. “We can provide as much detail as we can. Your evidence mentions unidentified armed forces attacking Soviet troops, previously employing large-scale airborne assaults supported by heavy bombers. Considering the context of your statement, it’s clear you’re implying these bombers came from our Royal Air Force’s bomber units. We’ve also presented our recent bomber unit deployment records, which show no large-scale mobilization plans. So how can we talk about carrying out your so-called large-scale offensive to ‘cut the entire Soviet forces in Germany in two’?”
“Indeed, sir.” After he finished speaking, Vice Marshal Rob quickly followed up, “You have also made accusations regarding air combat capabilities. Putting aside the fact that our fighter squadrons have only been on patrol missions lately, and the Royal Air Force only has fighters available for air superiority battles, that is irrefutable evidence. As for the absurd idea of sending puppets into the sky, I think it has nothing to do with us. As for the helicopters you mentioned that ‘can fly without propellers,’ I’m sorry, although we do have various arrangements regarding helicopters, as of now, we do not have any helicopter squadrons that can be deployed to front-line combat, let alone such advanced ideas about weapon principles.”
"You still don't understand what I'm saying?" Molotov sneered. "Can any of you explain to me why the identification tags we found on those unidentified enemies have the words 'Black Prince's Legion' and 'Edward III's Legion' on them? I believe no country would use historical terms from another country to name its army. Unless, of course, they're lying, lying to cover up all sorts of military operations."
"You must be joking, sir. Apart from a few units below the division level that have used purely lexical titles, our British Army has never used army group titles, let alone multiple such units appearing on the same battlefield. Yet your evidence contains two such titles, possibly even at the corps level or higher. So we feel that what you've 'created' is a bit too exaggerated for our British Army, or perhaps you've pieced these together by borrowing numbers from the Soviet Red Army?"
“Watch your attitude, Britons,” a Soviet major general next to Molotov said. “The Black Prince’s Army and the Edward III’s Army are commonly seen among those German bastards, and we just want to know, can you British give a clearer explanation for such names? Besides, do you think we Soviets are worried about the mudslinging you just threw at us? I don’t think the tricks you British have played on your allies over the years are so easily forgotten.”
“Um, please wait a moment, everyone.” At this moment, the American representative, Winnant, spoke up, “Even if the fighting outside Berlin is currently between your two sides, I don’t think that’s a reason to bring the fire to the table.”
"Actually, our idea is very simple. General Robinson, I believe Field Marshal Montgomery has learned from our General Eisenhower that a considerable number of the bodies brought back by the Allied forces that withdrew from the Berlin Incident were British soldiers who died alongside our American troops, right? If you want to find a way to make amends for these fallen children, and possibly give an explanation for the many more children who died outside Berlin, I think it's a good idea for us to help you devise a plan."
"You guys?" Bevin and Molotov, along with a large group of other British and Soviet personnel, all looked over.
"Let's leave it at that. On behalf of the US forces stationed in Europe, let me state our demands," the US Major General next to Winnant interjected. "Since everyone is currently bothered by these two names that have such a strong medieval flavor, we, the US side, request that you provide a complete organizational list of all your Army and Air Force units, as well as all changes in unit names, organizational structure, and deployment records since Germany's surrender. We will send specialists to your relevant departments to verify everything you provide. If your unit truly does not have any so-called corps, then we will be prepared to have our efforts wasted."
"Is this alright?" Bevan turned his face away and asked the two Royal Air Force generals in a low voice.
"I don't think we need to worry about these things. The US military has shared a lot of information and intelligence with us during the past few years while it was stationed on the British Isles. If we confront them directly now, it won't end well."
“Okay, sure!” Bevan took a deep breath. “Then, Mr. Winnant, please convey our message to Washington and General Eisenhower.”
“And ours too!” the Soviet major general said. “If the Americans are willing to share the results of your investigation of the troops, we will have no objection. However, we are more concerned about other things.”
Seeing the puzzled looks from the American and British sides, the Soviet soldier in his air force general's uniform spoke in a very stern tone.
"We have a lot of captured enemy weapons and equipment, some intact and some damaged, but we have read a lot of incredible things into them. And since it is very likely that this is due to your British affairs, I think it is necessary for us, the Soviet Union, to go and take a look at your arms factories."
"What?" The Foreign Secretary was startled, as if he had swallowed a fly, and the three British generals also became wary.
“We’ve never seen these things before,” the major general said, taking out two forms, one for the British and the other for himself. “They are all mass-produced. First, there are the assault rifles; we need to inspect your small arms production line. As for the armored vehicles and assault guns, we also need to inspect your armored vehicle factories. Then there are the communication and electronic equipment we captured. As for that, I don’t think I need to say much; we also need to inspect your electronics industry.”
Several British generals couldn't keep their composure. This wasn't an inspection; it was practically a house raid!
"Oh right, I almost forgot the most important thing." The major general curled the corner of his mouth slightly. "We also got helicopters from those German guys, and those flying dolls—let's call them flight bags for now. We salvaged quite a few jet engines from the wreckage that still had identifiable structures, and I think, besides the United States and Germany, which other country has anything like that right now?"
"You, what are you thinking?"
"The last request is that you British side open your jet fighter factories. Of course, we don't need complete aircraft, just the jet engines. We can take them to compare with the engines we captured."
"You are challenging the dignity of a nation's army, sir." Deputy Field Marshal Rob said angrily. He knew that once the Russians figured out the Royal Air Force's Meteor jet fighters, it would be a disaster for the future skies of the entire Western world.
"We also feel this is somewhat inappropriate, General," came the voice from the Stars and Stripes side. "If something so highly classified is truly necessary, you could simply exchange photos of jet engines to compare them. Why resort to such a radical method?"
"Ah, I'm just putting that here." The Soviet major general smiled sheepishly. "If you really don't want to bring it up, then we're too embarrassed to force you. But the previous points aren't too unreasonable, are they? Besides, I don't need to repeat what kind of situation Britain is in now, do I?"
The entire room suddenly fell silent...
……
On the other side of the Union Jack, three generals and the Foreign Minister discussed the matter in hushed tones for a long time.
“Alright, gentlemen,” Bevin said after a moment’s thought, “since we have no disagreement on the other points, let’s make these the main points of our tripartite agreement. As for the jet engine, I will explain the situation to Prime Minister Attlee on behalf of your Soviet side, and I will give you a satisfactory answer for all three of us. That’s all.”
"Very well, then let's prepare the agreement..."
……
Meanwhile, hundreds of kilometers away in Germany, at a train station in the American-occupied zone, a general wearing a steel helmet stood on the platform, accompanied by his officers, quietly watching the military train in front of him start moving.
"Fuck the hell out of him." The curse and the sight of the revolver drawn at his waist confirmed that General Patton had made a long-awaited appearance. "Ike's been studying these stinking, black cow dung dregs for ages and still hasn't figured them out?"