Homo Sapiens

January 4th, ’22.

Tianzhu.

Southwest of Siliguri City, within the Tianzhu Army’s defensive positions.

Under the cover of night, two battered divisions with a combined strength of 17,000 troops were receiving a large shipment of ammunition, fuel, and food supplies.

Ville Walmart and Singer Takar were enthusiastically hosting the quartermaster, Bart, who had escorted the supplies. On the dining table in the bunker, a rather fine spread of lamb pilaf and curry dishes had been laid out.

However, they were unaware.

In the light fixture wiring above the dining table, a few cockroaches were silently watching them.

Bart hadn’t wanted to stay for the meal, but their hospitality was hard to refuse, so he had no choice but to stay.

"Division Commander Ville, is it safe here?" Bart was in no mood to enjoy the fine food.

Ville nodded. "Don’t worry! This bunker has been specially reinforced. It’s also behind the mountain, and there are no radio facilities nearby. The enemy won’t realize this is the command post."

"Good, that’s good." Bart finally breathed a sigh of relief.

However, at that very moment.

Inside an underground base near Siliguri City, which was surrounded by dense minefields.

Guli was personally leading his subordinates, looking at the strange equipment before them.

Base Commander Mang Feilong urgently shouted, "Quick! Prepare for battle!"

Over a dozen New Human soldiers wearing combat exoskeletons entered through a hatch, which was then quickly sealed.

A short while later, everyone had evacuated the area.

The various floodgates were closed, and the area began to fill with water. As the water level continued to rise, more than half of the chamber was soon submerged.

In the control room, Mang Feilong ordered, "Open the channel."

"Roger that."

The channel connecting to the river outside slowly opened.

Holding a radio, Mang Feilong commanded, "Thunder Dragon No. 1, launch!"

"Roger that."

Inside the flooded chamber, a medium-sized submarine began to inflate its airbags, lifting it until it was suspended in the water, and then it slowly began to move outward.

When the vessel emerged into the river channel, it entered a river valley. The water depth here was about 28.6 meters, a deep-water area that had been artificially dredged.

For the Thunder Dragon No. 1, with a hull height of about 8 meters, it was just barely possible to navigate while submerged.

But that didn’t matter.

Because Thunder Dragon No. 1 wasn’t designed for submerged travel. It quickly surfaced and inflated airbags, similar to those on a hovercraft, lifting its hull completely out of the water.

Next, its upper deck unfolded to both sides, transforming into a pair of wings.

The four turbojet engines mounted at the rear then fired up, spewing pale blue flames.

They propelled the 620-ton Thunder Dragon No. 1 toward a stretch of river 16.3 kilometers downstream.

Once the engines reached full power, Thunder Dragon No. 1 lifted off the water’s surface, climbing to an altitude of about 15 meters and reaching a speed of 480 kilometers per hour.

In less than three minutes.

Thunder Dragon No. 1 reached its designated river section, an area of small lakes and marshland. After secret dredging operations, parts of the water here were over 25 meters deep.

Thunder Dragon No. 1 came to a stop in one of these deep-water areas.

The captain ordered the radar operator to switch on the radar and recalibrate its parameters.

"Report! Parameters recalibrated!"

"Deploy the Howling Cannon."

"Roger."

Thunder Dragon No. 1’s deck split open, revealing a massive 300mm, 52-caliber cannon whose muzzle slowly began to move.

Thunder Dragon No. 1 then deployed support struts, plunging them into the mud and sand of the riverbed. Once its position was secure, it began to adjust the cannon’s muzzle and angle.

Using numerous auxiliary systems, the firing solution was calculated in just five minutes.

The captain glanced at his watch. "Begin loading the shell."

"Roger."

The autoloader quickly rammed a special armor-piercing shell and its propellant charge into the breech.

"Fire!"

BEEP! The firing switch was pressed!

BOOM!

The force of the detonation instantly launched the shell.

The terrifying recoil and blast wave struck the surrounding water’s surface like a giant fist.

...

Meanwhile, approximately 63 kilometers to the southwest of the cannon’s firing position.

Officers like Ville, Singer, and Bart were still eating and chatting animatedly.

"With this ammunition, we can attack the rebel-occupied Siliguri City in a few days," Singer boasted shamelessly. "And when we do, I’ll make those traitors pay!"

Suddenly, an air-raid siren blared outside.

Bart, who had been about to speak, jumped in fright. "What’s going on? An enemy attack?"

"Don’t panic! It’s probably just drone harassment." Ville had witnessed the aerial combat of the past few days, as well as Assam’s drone swarms.

However, the words had barely left his lips.

BOOM! Blood streamed from all seven of his orifices as he collapsed, his eyes wide in death.

The other officers met the same fate.

A 300mm armor-piercing shell, slamming down at nearly Mach 3. Forget a direct hit—even being within two hundred meters would cause catastrophic injuries.

That shell had landed less than 50 meters from the command post. The resulting shockwave and vibration had instantly killed every mammal within a 100-meter radius.

The point of impact was now a crater over ten meters wide.

The quartermaster soldiers who were still moving ammunition had taken cover after hearing the air-raid siren, and then they heard a massive explosion.

A few minutes later, Colonel Vilan Volvo rushed to the vicinity of the command post. He stared at the massive crater nearby, the color drained from his face.

Even though he was a good-for-nothing who owed his position to his uncle, he still had some basic military knowledge.

’With a strike like this, at such close range, his uncle is almost certainly dead.’

Suddenly, the air-raid siren began to wail urgently.

The adjutant’s face went pale. "Take cover! The enemy is attacking again!"

"Bastards! Why isn’t the air defense battalion intercepting them?" Vilan roared as he scrambled desperately for a nearby bunker.

BOOM! An underground ammunition depot took a direct hit. The shockwave and resulting vibrations triggered a chain reaction, detonating several hundred tons of ammunition.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM...

Watching the inferno light up the sky in the distance.

Vilan was frozen in terror.

Meanwhile, at the air defense battalion’s position.

Over a dozen missile launchers manufactured by the Samo Duchy were rapidly adjusting their firing parameters. Their computers had analyzed the shell’s trajectory and locked onto the launch position.

A moment later, five modified Prithvi-1 surface-to-surface missiles soared into the sky.

However, immediately after firing, Thunder Dragon No. 1 had already activated its ground-effect flight mode and was heading for another lake over ten kilometers away.

Upon reaching the new position, Thunder Dragon No. 1 slipped directly beneath the water’s surface.

Meanwhile, drones near its previous location began deploying heat decoys.

The modified Prithvi-1 missiles, with a flight speed of only 600 meters per second, took 105 seconds to reach the target location.

By then, Thunder Dragon No. 1 was long gone.

The incoming missiles were drawn to the heat decoys, failing to find Thunder Dragon No. 1, which was now hidden underwater over ten kilometers away.

Submerged, Thunder Dragon No. 1 once again deployed its Howling Cannon.

BOOM!

Another shell was launched.

Then, Thunder Dragon No. 1 relocated again.

The two sides exchanged fire like this for over half an hour.

The Tianzhu Army’s 36th and 21st Divisions fired over fifty Prithvi-1 missiles, while Thunder Dragon No. 1 fired 21 shells.

Yet those 21 shells had completely destroyed the opposing command post, ammunition depot, fuel depot, and an entire air defense battalion.

Slippery as an eel, Thunder Dragon No. 1 employed "shoot and scoot" tactics, and it could even hide underwater.

The Tianzhu Army didn’t dare send out reconnaissance aircraft, leaving them to passively take the beating.

As for satellite imaging, it was nighttime, so the resolution was very low. Furthermore, Thunder Dragon No. 1 had a camouflage coating, making its remote sensing signature nearly indistinguishable from a rock.

Having destroyed the enemy’s command post and ammunition supplies, Thunder Dragon No. 1 had completed its mission. It ceased firing and lay dormant beneath the surface of a marsh.