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Page 188
"I remember the veterans saying that the fighter jets here are given big gifts every day?"
The Archivk is not in immediate danger, but it is in a precarious situation. Its escort forces are being outmaneuvered by the somewhat cumbersome fighter jets, and its shields, which cannot provide all-around protection, cannot afford to expose the bottom of the ship to the enemy. While the ship's structure can withstand a breach in the hull, the buoyancy engines located beneath the hull are a different story.
The crew members responsible for shield protection felt their scalps tingle. The fighter jets roared through the night sky with their machine guns and cannons, and their fleeting figures made it difficult to tell whether they had anything that could give them a hard time. The training before coming to Area 45 was finally paying off. Fortunately, these fighter jets only left a few bullet holes on the ship's hull.
"That's enough, Captain. The mission's objective has been achieved. Since this is our first time participating in a battle, let's not be too eager for quick success. As Her Highness Elizabeth said, for the sake of prudence, let's not be too hasty in expanding our gains. Besides, we didn't come here to capture Szczecin."
"Alright, listen to my command, destination Berlin, full speed back!"
……
As the ship's navigation lights faded into the night sky over the Oder River, the Skyship's operation came to a perfect end.
"All ships report, check for damage, shield control center conducts operational assessment, gun crews verify attack results."
"The fire control center reports that the operation destroyed several bridges in the city and a pontoon bridge upstream of the river. The damage to the city streets was also very effective. At the same time, at least 18 ground clusters and positions were completely destroyed. I am certain they will not be able to cross the Oder River."
"Shield Center reports: Data is normal, no serious energy consumption."
"Oh, so it seems we've escaped unscathed? Well, we should still tally up the casualties among the escort forces." The captain smiled helplessly. "Alright, all crew members, we're heading back to Area 11."
"Wait a moment, sir. We just discovered that two of the convergence beacons installed on the outside of the ship have been destroyed by the enemy... In other words, we can't use the portal anymore!"
"Oh no... Contact Berlin immediately, we need a safe harbor!"
"Don't worry anymore."
"Wait, is this... Her Highness Elizabeth?" The people on the bridge heard the unexpected radio waves.
"I am aware of your achievements just now. You did very well, crew of the Archivist. Thanks to your efforts, the gates of Szczecin have been locked. Soon, our forces, with the help of massive reinforcements, will wipe out the enemy before us. You have been honored to be the vanguard in lighting the beacon of the counterattack. Do not worry about your departure or stay. I have already arranged a reserve berth at Oranienburg, north of Berlin. Now, please follow the guidance of my Guards for landing."
……
Thick smoke rising from the burning positions obscured the last starlight on the east bank of the Oder River.
In that trench, Ekaterina shook off the mud covering her body, climbed out blankly, and looked at her comrades hurrying by.
The campsite beside her had been reduced to several huge craters. Two T-34 tanks, overturned and smashed by artillery fire, lay indifferently burning by the roadside, setting the nearby bushes ablaze. The remaining branches and leaves burned like shimmering riverbanks, reflecting her face as if she were just waking from a dream.
Looking back at Ilya, he finally dropped the shell clip in his hand in despair and went silently to help rescue his comrades who had been killed or wounded in the natural disaster.
Turning around, I noticed something eye-catching on the ground.
She picked it up and examined it closely; it turned out to be an accordion key lying in Catherine's hand.
She could no longer find the person who pressed the piano keys, nor could she find the hands that could produce beautiful music—as if history were repeating itself, the szechet began to burn again under the night sky.
Chapter 234, Section 309: Another Dawn
Spring has been here for quite some time now, and looking across the German landscape, there isn't a single snowflake left to admire or touch.
The Archivk was moored on a farmland outside Oranienburg, bathed in the morning sunlight, standing like a huge boulder. Some technicians were busy dismantling the peripherals that were originally used to pass through the portal, while others were busy repairing the behemoth's shell—the few machine gun shell holes were negligible damage to its bones, but they were still an eyesore on the shell.
Busy taking care of the new guests, but not flustered or confused, look up and see that no pilots from District 45 have had the chance to see the sunlight reflected off the Skyship anymore. Even the "fake building" next to it has become an unpopular attraction. That's right, the arrival of the Archivk has given Poseidon's Trident a long-awaited vacation. The princess ordered that this Optimus Prime be moved to this new turret in the north for safety reasons.
This is the treatment a hero receives.
"Welcome, Captain Parklin, representing the warriors of the 45th Expeditionary Force."
Who would have thought that Her Highness Elizabeth would be waiting to greet them at the very spot where they had landed? After a few brief words of praise, the crew was dismissed to rest, and the princess, along with the captain, boarded a vertical takeoff transport plane that flew back to the center of Berlin.
"What was it like to cruise through the skies of another world for the first time, Captain?"
"As expected, but with a touch of surprise from something I've never actually seen before, Your Highness." The captain replied while pondering. "Since its existence, District 45 has been synonymous with mystery and danger. Although I was mentally prepared, it was still somewhat unexpected. Indeed, there is no battlefield in the darkness that the full moonlight can rival, except here."
"So now you understand why I instructed you to leave some crew members on watch inside the ship, and not to completely shut down the engines?"
"Yes, firstly, keeping the shield online at the top can protect against daytime air attacks, and secondly, it can reduce the time required to initiate an emergency strike... Forgive my intrusion, but I presume Your Highness has also been doing this in recent days..."
"Let's not talk about it." Elizabeth seemed unconcerned about the topic. "When a general truly stands with his soldiers, that's when he truly understands the war. As for you, Captain?"
"I understand, of course I understand. I had an epiphany when we flew over Shiqieqing without any major incident." The captain chuckled. "The anti-aircraft fire didn't pose a threat to us. The only time we panicked was when enemy planes came. We were worried they would drop rockets, but the shield control personnel were just turning around and around when we found out they only had some machine guns. Hahahaha."
"As long as the Archivk can be deployed immediately next time, all you need to do now is take good care of her."
Upon landing near the Brandenburg Gate, before even stepping out of the plane, Paklin saw a massive army of soldiers pouring out of the portals outside the window, sweeping across the streets. What struck him as odd was that after disembarking, Her Highness the Princess went straight to the Parliament Building, without any attendants other than guards, let alone any kind of inspection ceremony.
“I’m not in the mood to pay attention to latecomers,” she muttered to herself, as if addressing these belated reinforcements. “You’re different from the officials still enjoying wine and light in District 11, Captain. I think it’s necessary to show you how a day or two is spent in District 45.”
After saying that, she called Isca, who was standing not far away, over.
"Send the girls of the Imperial Guard out immediately, and soon our enemy will be unable to advance any further."
……
Hope, like the fragrance of wildflowers, begins to spread from the center of Berlin in all directions—it will take some time to reach Halbe, more than 40 kilometers to the south.
A group of poor but brave soldiers are still holding out here. Griffin and Angelie are still among them. About a year ago, hundreds of German soldiers tried to escape Halbe's encirclement and retreat to Berlin, but the road was piled up with endless wreckage and corpses.
Time has passed, and the Soviet Red Army's two paws have once again enveloped this place. They are like birds struggling on an oil-slicked sea, desperately trying to move themselves, but they are powerless to escape, nor are they allowed to escape.
"Reinforcements are on their way. All troops must hold the following transportation hubs and not abandon them until the last man is killed." Halberd was one of the targets in Her Highness Elizabeth's order. According to her plan, several plots of land, including this town, would serve as the last line of defense against the Soviet army. They would hold out until the last man, when reinforcements would arrive to secure the last position and then carry out the next step of the operation.
If you ask why Her Highness didn't deploy the remaining reserves to this last line of defense, the answer is: Griffin was one of those "remaining" ones.
The expeditionary force could no longer afford to be complacent. If gaps were torn in this defensive line stretching fifty or sixty kilometers from east to west, what awaited them was the familiar sound of slaughter—a torrent of sounds composed of tank engines, artillery fire, and soldiers' battle cries. All plans for a counter-offensive would become worthless, and the newly arrived reinforcements would most likely return to the desperate situation of holding out in Berlin and waiting for an opportunity to break out, repeating the long-standing predicament of the 45th district.
"Hold on, lift your head and look at me, please."
In the cemetery among the trees, Griffin jumped out of his plane and was busy taking care of a seriously wounded young man. The young man was leaning against a tombstone, bleeding profusely, the blood seeping into the ground beneath him, as he tried to reach out and touch the person buried beneath the tombstone—a victim who had been trapped in the encirclement a year ago.
Angelie got separated from him and, along with the other troops still fighting, huddled in a corner of the town, by a broken wall or a large tree, hysterically trying to drive away the approaching enemy. Halbe was like a pancake in a furnace; the Soviets had already set up the red flags on the furnace walls, set the forest ablaze with artillery fire, and used shells to destroy the charred remains. The lives of everyone in the town were within reach.
In reality, the arrival of the two of them and several other members of the Knights did not change anything—they held out for two days, while the garrison in Halberd endured eight days on the brink of death. Under the increasingly intense suppression of air raids and artillery fire, their armor was stripped off like grains of rice under a millstone, staining every road in the town red.
Of course, the garrison was not static; there were other locations besides Halbe, and the names of the troops had probably changed several times. Like ants on a thread, a slight misstep could lead to the annihilation of the entire army, causing the collapse of the entire war situation. Who knows when the last straw would fall and break their back?
Perhaps now?
"what!--"
A tank shell appeared out of nowhere and exploded not far from Griffin. The violent shockwave threw the two of them over the low wall of the cemetery and knocked them unconscious.
……
Fortunately, the roar of an engine and heart-wrenching cries woke him up.
“Heavens…” Griffin threw aside the corpse that had fallen on him and tried to get up. His dizzy eyes and brain brought him a black and white forest that appeared and disappeared intermittently, but he couldn’t see through the solid body.
"Soviet tanks!...The rear!..." He vaguely heard these words, and then, amidst the relentless barrage of bullets, he watched the figure grow closer and larger.
"No!" Angelie's wailing came through the radio in his ear. Griffin watched in disbelief as the girl's mobile phone suddenly sprang out and shoved its machine gun between the road wheels of the tank, forcing it to stop.
"No more armor-piercing rounds available!" This devastating news was relayed through the communications of the surrounding troops. Angelie had no other choice but to desperately try to get Gloucester's arm to hold the T-34's gun barrel shut, preventing it from aiming at the shell crater that Griffin couldn't climb out of.
The captain was heartbroken—the girl's actions couldn't save him, but now no one could save him, because another tank was unknowingly approaching from the flank amidst the mud and deadly gunfire…
……
"what!"
In the instant before he closed his eyes again, he heard Angelie's pained cry.
But when he opened his eyes, he saw that the two bison beside the fallen Gloucester had been blown into torches and scrap metal by two consecutive cannon shots from the sky.
"Captain? Captain Griffin? Are you still there? Me!"
Rubbing my eyes, I noticed that many KMFs were suddenly approaching in the sky, one of which stood out—wearing the insignia of the Knights of Agincourt, all green, holding a huge long-barreled cannon in both hands, not to mention its all-too-recognizable voice.
"What? Is that you, Ypel?"
"Yay, ya! Captain, and Angelina, you're both alive..." The girl was almost crying with excitement. "Hold on, we'll defeat all the enemies here soon!"
As the KMF aircraft, bearing the insignia of Her Highness Elizabeth's Royal Guard, swooped down, a refreshing breeze swept through, giving the captain, who had been suffering from the scorching heat, a rare sense of life. Meanwhile, several kilometers or even tens of kilometers away, troops fresh from Area 11, still feeling the sea breeze of Tokyo Bay, rushed to dismantle the hammer and sickle's encirclement.
Yes, the defense of Halberd, along with other key points on the defensive lines, is now secure; they have finally completed their mission. It was unexpected that Halberd's importance was so great that Her Highness the Princess had to send her own personal guard to provide support.
What's even more surprising is Ypel's aircraft—the captain had no idea where she got this Vincent from, nor did he expect it to be painted in the colors that represent her.
Even more terrifying was the weapon in her hand, which looked like an elongated KMF recoilless rifle fitted with a revolving magazine to hold the recoilless rifle's shells. She had just destroyed two tanks with this. Now, it seemed that more infantry were advancing towards the captain. She still raised the muzzle, but this time she fired two machine guns mounted side by side of the cannon, tearing apart and driving away the flesh and blood.
“I’m not a child anymore, seriously, Captain!” With that, Ypel’s plane took off again, and the devices on both sides of the cannon barrel suddenly spread out like an eagle spreading its wings, condensing into a vermilion sun in Vincent’s hand.
"This time, I will save everyone!"
As soon as the words fell, a torrent of blood-red liquid poured down from the cannon muzzle, carrying the unique lightning phantom of the Hadron cannon, sweeping over Halbe's gradually receding Red Stars.
Chapter 235 Ragnarok (Section 310)
"Report: The Soviet offensive near Besco has been halted, and the enemy offensive on the southern front has ceased entirely!"
This good news, coming from a city seventy kilometers southeast of Berlin, suggests that the once-powerful sickle and hammer have vanished from the German landscape. Like a series of deafening drumbeats that send chills down your spine, the world has quietly returned to silence, accompanied by the hearty laughter of the cymbals.
Yes, the veterans of the expeditionary force, hoarse from shouting, and the newly arrived reinforcements were finally able to stand side by side, using overwhelming numbers of KMFs, assault guns, and infantry fighting vehicles, like waves crashing against a dam, to finally defeat the enemy draped in red stars and restore peace to Berlin.
Elizabeth finally got a few good nights' sleep, waiting for the front lines to be fully stabilized and for tens of thousands of reinforcements to be deployed to all sides of Berlin to prepare for the counter-offensive. The only bad news during this period was that the two destroyers, the Ritzia and Annassel, which were stranded in the occupied area on the northern coast, had been hit by a squadron of Royal Air Force aircraft, leaving several holes in them. Fortunately, it seemed that they could still be repaired?
The time had come. The Duke of Sassler, in the Parliament building, bowed with a mixture of relief and excitement to Elizabeth, who was facing out the window.
"Awaiting your summons, Your Highness."
"Give the order to advance for me."
"Huh? What?" The Duke was somewhat surprised, thinking that she was going to give a passionate speech to the vast army as before.
"Now! In my place! Order the entire army to advance! The attack is of utmost urgency!"
"Ahem... Yes, sir!"
……
As evening fell, the setting sun shone on the exterior walls of the Capitol Building, making them gleam like jewels and gold coins.
Yes, this is a chest full of looted treasures. When the cry of "In the name of Her Highness Elizabeth, all troops, attack!" resounded across this land, a thunderous battle cry followed.
At this moment, the princess with long white hair had already stepped onto the rooftop of the Capitol Building, placing her hands on the hemispherical dome of the palace, which was almost under repair, and feeling the pulsating rhythm of thousands of war machines beneath her.
She and the Capitol Building became one brainstem, countless nerves spreading across the sky. Her mind told her that she could no longer hear the existence of those nightmares—the fuel engines of the bison, the earth-shaking roars of Soviet soldiers, the shrieks of Katyusha rockets like vultures, and the thousands of propeller predators flying in from the direction of sunrise and sunset. Now, all of them were driven away by the roar of the lion of Britannia.
All that remains in my ears and in my heart is the rhythm of the integrated circuits born in my homeland, heading towards the distance.
The front lines have been stabilized, but this is only the first step in the entire counter-offensive plan. Tens of thousands of expeditionary soldiers are still trapped on distant battlefields, surrounded by numerous large and small encirclements that appear impregnable to the Soviet army. Rescuing them is the second step of this plan, and it is the mission that these brave soldiers must shoulder.
Before nightfall, looking up, the teleportation portals in the sky stood tall like a new sunrise, bursting forth from the sunlight and rising from distant towns. KMFs, fighter jets, and armed transport planes, like a tidal wave of fireflies in the night, flashed like brilliant shooting stars as they flew south, bringing hope and death.
"Sister?" At this moment, Kelly unexpectedly came up to the rooftop and looked at Elizabeth with a strange expression, her eyes filled with innocence and expectation as she watched the phantom flying across the sky. She hurriedly looked around and then suddenly ran forward with her arms outstretched, just like a child chasing a soap bubble.
She stopped, standing by the Britannian flagpole at the edge of the rooftop, gazing at the southern sky, still feeling a sense of longing.
As Kelly hesitated, he felt a massive shadow looming over him—the Archivk had caught up with the operation to contain Szczecin, and naturally wouldn't miss this glorious moment that would turn the tide of the war. Its heavy and imposing body floated above the city of Berlin, obscuring the setting sun and the last rays of the evening glow.
As night falls, a new dawn will break through the mountains and rivers. Poseidon's Halberd, a massive train cannon that has moved from the southern suburbs to the northern suburbs of the city, also sheds its high-rise disguise at this very moment.
The princess's eyes reflected her own starry sky, and the national flag fluttering above her forehead.
"Go, loyal soldiers, don't let me down."
……
"Marshal Zhukov has brought you very bad news, General."
It was past midnight, and Frankfurt, more than 400 kilometers away, seemed to be illuminated by a blazing light. Both Eisenhower and General Clay were unable to fall asleep.
"The Britannian Empire has deployed a large number of air and ground forces to launch a full-scale counter-offensive against the vast Soviet-occupied territories south of Berlin and west of the Oder River. The Eighth Guards Army and the Second Guards Tank Army, which are currently on the western flank of the front line, are facing immense pressure and are being forced to retreat step by step. While the Fifth Shock Army and other troops from Poland are in a relatively stable situation, their flanks have been exposed in many ways, and they are in danger of being cut to the bone at any moment."
“Just as he said,” Ike frowned slightly, “the 1st and 9th Infantry Divisions, along with the 3rd Armored Division, are currently advancing on Potsdam alongside the 8th Guards Army. So, another implication of this news is…”
"The First Red Division will never have the chance to see the Brandenburg Gate again."
“It’s a sad story.” Eisenhower shook his head and stood up. “Operation Reef hasn’t gone smoothly since it started. What do you think is the reason, Clay?”
"We placed too much trust in our allies in the East, overestimated our men, underestimated the numbers of our visitors, and underestimated the capabilities of our enemies."
How should we interpret General Clay's answer?
The judgment was wrong. The Soviet army had suffered losses in the siege of Berlin and was blocked by the Oder River. At present, it was impossible to unleash its forces. The hard factors of casualties and attrition made it difficult for these Soviet heroes who had returned from many battles to regain their courage.
The initial assessment was insufficient. The US military had only recently brought Operation Magic Carpet to a halt, and while their forces remaining on the European continent weren't entirely depleted, they were still somewhat stretched thin to commit to a large-scale strategic offensive. As for the British? Preventing that marshal from launching another erratic operation was far more reliable than letting these gentlemen embark on their elegant eastward journey, step by step.
It was too late; the number of enemies emerging in Berlin far exceeded expectations. They had indeed captured prisoners and learned that enemy reinforcements were already on their way, but the level of countermeasures they had developed was far less than the scale of the enemy's overwhelming force.