CXnovel Chapter 559 The Whole Big
Chapter 559 The Whole Big
Su Tianqing had lost count of how many times she had shown a surprised expression today.
The original art style for Escape from Foxkov should have been like this:
The lightly armed mouse squad searches for gold throughout the city, fights against a well-equipped boss group, activates the power gate at the extraction point, and escapes the city by helicopter with the gold.
Intense gunfights, indoor CQB, and the necessary strategic retreats, with perhaps a few minor additions of heavy armor—that's what Foxkov should be all about.
But the current Foxkov...
There are anti-aircraft missiles and armed helicopters, machine gun positions and tank assaults, as well as orbital assaults that descend from the sky, and four well-equipped shadow squads, each over two meters tall, emerging from an orbital drop pod.
He could even hallucinate the wild laughter emanating from the shadows.
"We're being shot! Back up!" Hyacinth shouted.
"I...I...I'm trying!" Marigold quickly responded, pulling the lever to engage reverse gear and starting to move backward steadily.
She stared intently at the observation port from the driver's seat, at the shadows for a moment, then suddenly asked:
"Where did they come from?"
"It felt like it just crashed down from the sky," Hyacinth replied.
"...That sounds terrifying. Do you think we can really beat them...?"
Before answering Marigold's question, the golden-haired fox girl peeked out from the train tower and looked at the sky connected by the trails of the group of orbital drop pods.
It's probably not as simple as whether or not you can win... it's a question of how long you can survive in this mental image. Su Tianqing thought to herself.
Garuda's eyes were not visible from the high dome. Instead, a warship-like object floated in the far sky, seemingly the one that dropped the drop pods and the Shadow Squad inside.
Upon seeing that spaceship, Su Tianqing instantly went numb.
Wait a minute, are our tanks and those warships in the sky from the same era? Is it really drawn in the same style as Foxkov? Garuda, even if you're going to go off the rails, you can't just throw in science fiction elements!
Before Su Tianqing could finish her internal monologue, intense gunfire and shouts suddenly filled her earpiece. The source of the sounds was Chi Xue, who was crouching on the vehicle, using the turret as cover to fire back at the shadowy figures.
"Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!!" The automatic rifle fired.
However, her firepower was clearly no match for the weapons on the other side, which looked like they were from a completely different era. The four members of the Shadow Squad set up a temporary position on the flower bed in the square, with rifles and light machine guns spitting fire. Their firepower was fierce and terrifying, and they instantly suppressed Chi Xue.
Bullets rained down on the turret and hull. This level of attack was not enough to trigger the explosive reactive armor, but the clanging and banging, like a torrential downpour, echoed violently inside the vehicle, instantly creating a sense of oppression.
"Waaaaah..." Marigold's voice trembled with nervousness.
"Don't worry, this is a tank, it's very sturdy."
Seeing the timid and nervous Marigold, Su Tianqing spoke up to comfort her.
Under the commander's command, the girl mustered her courage and steadily controlled the vehicle to reverse and retract. The echoing sound of bullets colliding inside the vehicle still made her tremble all over, but it was much better than when she was trembling with fear, clutching her head.
As for the gunner... he was currently grumbling as he operated the automatic loader, picking up a high-explosive shell from the ammunition rack, muttering under his breath:
"First the machine gun positions, then this random airborne assault from who-knows-where... what is all this about..."
"Never mind, watch me blow them all to bits with my tanks!"
Hyacinth raised her hand and gripped the gunner's control lever. The turret turned and aimed as it reversed, the sights firmly locked onto the temporary firing position that the Shadow Squad had set up in the square, and a shell was loaded into the breech.
"Commander, requesting permission to fire."
"Freedom to fire is permitted."
"Roger! 100 meters away, one high-explosive grenade loaded—fire!"
"Crack!!!"
The muzzle of the cannon shook violently.
The explosive grenade detonated at the Shadow Squad's makeshift position, instantly killing three of them. The remaining member was also thrown a considerable distance by the blast wave, rolling several times on the ground before falling still.
A moment of silence.
"While I really want to praise you for your excellent bombing, could you please let me know before firing next time? Please be considerate of the infantry."
Chi Xue's soft voice rang in the earphones, and Hyacinth's desire to cheer loudly was forcibly suppressed, and she pursed her lips and remained silent.
The tank stopped at the intersection, ready to retreat at any moment. The tank commander, Xin Yuehu, stood on the seat and tiptoed to barely stick his head out of the tank. He exchanged a glance with Chi Xue, who was huddled behind the turret loading ammunition magazines. The two of them looked at the dark shadow lying motionless in the middle of the road.
"That shot went a little off course; that guy was probably just stunned," Xin Yuehu said.
"Shall I go up and finish them off with a couple more shots?" Chi Xue chimed in.
"No way, look up at the sky. I think we'd better stay as far away from them as possible—"
Before he could finish speaking...
The dark figure lying on the ground suddenly moved: it struggled to move its body, raised its helmeted head, and looked in the direction of the tank through its goggles.
Su Tianqing couldn't see what was in its eyes, but a sense of foreboding crept into her heart.
"Red Snow!" "You don't need to tell me!"
Xin Yuehu shouted a warning, and Chi Xue immediately raised her rifle and fired a burst of bullets at the shadowy figure.
The dark shadow rolled and tumbled on the ground to evade, and Chi Xue quickly fired to suppress it. Bullets pierced the shadow's arms and legs, leaving several wounds, but still could not stop it from rolling into the concrete bunker by the roadside.
"Hyacinth, load one grenade." Sensing something was wrong, the tank commander, Xin Yuehu, immediately made arrangements.
The automatic loader started operating, the mechanical gears clattering.
But amidst this clanging sound, an object that looked exactly like the metal sphere from before suddenly flew out from behind the concrete bunker where the black shadow was hiding!
The shadow soldier's strength was absurd; even after being hit by several bullets, he was still able to throw the sphere a considerable distance.
The sphere stopped and rolled about 20 to 30 meters in front of the tank, where metal plates were laid out and fixed in place. A red beam of light shot into the sky from the display screen's emitter.
Thanks to the magical girl's enhanced vision, everyone was able to see the coded message displayed on the screen:
"↑→↓↓↓"
"What do you mean?" "Never mind what that means, I think that thing glowing red is definitely not a good sign, we should start pouring immediately..."
A deep, rumbling sound came from the sky.
Thinking several more airdrop pods were about to land, Hyacinth opened the hatch and looked up. The massive steel shadows hurtling through the buildings made her freeze. She hurriedly shrank back into the car and screamed in terror at Marigold, who was steadily reversing:
"Full speed reverse! Full speed! Floor the accelerator!!"
"Ah? I... I'm going full speed right away, but I can't see what's behind the car!" Marigold said worriedly.
"I'll guide you; just keep reversing at full speed!"
The hyacinth was as anxious as a nightingale who couldn't get a piece of the fox's pouch; it was almost ready to jump down, carry a tank, and run away at full speed.
Soon, everyone knew what the hyacinth had seen:
In the gap between the buildings ahead, a dazzling jet engine trail streaked across the sky. The flying steel behemoth pulled up to slow down, and near its highest point, it performed a perfect pendulum maneuver to change course, diving straight toward the direction of the red beam of light.
A jet attack aircraft, clearly not from this era, with two huge bombs mounted under its wings, swooped down and dropped them toward the red sphere.
"It dropped a bomb! Aaaaaaah!!" Marigold was terrified.
"Reverse! Reverse!"
The tank reversed at full speed.
But for the T90M... even with magical engine enhancements, its 30 mph reverse speed isn't much faster than an electric scooter.
A jet attack aircraft roared overhead, and the tank had only managed to back up about forty meters, not even having time to escape the bomb's attack range.
Without hesitation, Chi Xue jumped into the tower and, together with Su Tianqing, closed the top cover.
Hyacinth immediately closed the gunner's hatch on her head and looked through the gunner's observation window at the aerial bomb that was falling at an angle.
one second.
two seconds.
"BOOM!!!!"
After a brief delay in the fuse, the bomb exploded, and light and fire engulfed everything in sight.
Thick smoke billowed into the sky, and shockwaves spread in all directions, bouncing and swaying between buildings. Walls near the street collapsed, and cars were lifted several meters into the air before crashing down, smashing another surviving bus on the roadside into two pieces.
When the shockwave reached the tank, the track suspension groaned, but thanks to its armor and massive weight, the tank stood firm in the shockwave. With its magically enhanced engine, it sped away in reverse, escaping the absolute kill radius and avoiding being blown to pieces by the aerial bomb.
Several high-speed fragments triggered an explosive reactive armor piece on the vehicle. Even though Su Tianqing had desperately covered her ears, the deafening roar of the reactive armor detonating was like being hit hard on the forehead, leaving her head buzzing.
"Ouch! My ears hurt so much, they're going to go deaf!"
Hyacinth looked pained, thankfully the soundproof tank helmet blocked most of the sound waves.
Marigold also narrowly escaped death, and Red Snow was not seriously injured because she was wearing tactical headphones. Upon closer inspection, it was actually Fox who was hit the hardest, and all that was left in Fox's ears was the buzzing of tinnitus.
"Having such good sound reception isn't necessarily a good thing," Su Tianqing thought to herself.
The dust has settled; the crossroads has been completely destroyed by aerial bombs.
The road surface collapsed, building walls crumbled, and car wreckage piled up to form a solid roadblock that even tanks couldn't break through.
Traces of the attack aircraft's disciplined release of decoy flares remained in the air. The four crew members looked up at the attack aircraft that had returned to high altitude for patrol and standby, and all breathed a sigh of relief.
"call……"
"So, what's the next step?"
After calming down a bit, Hyacinth turned her head to look at Fox and Red Snow, who were sitting side by side in the train's captain's seat without feeling cramped at all.
Little Fox and Little Red glanced at the magical girl wearing a tank helmet, and Heart Moon Fox spoke first:
"Chixue and I are here to rescue you two. Theoretically, we can leave whenever we want."
Chi Xue picked up the conversation:
"With this tank, we plan to investigate the distortion caused by Garuda more thoroughly here, and maybe we can pinpoint its true location."
"Oh, speaking of which, Hyacinth and I just found some clues in the alley behind the 4S store."
"It's the marigold in the driver's seat," said the voice.
She was maneuvering the tank to turn around on the spot, intending to leave through another exit on the street, while also mentioning the intelligence the two had gathered in this distorted city of Foxkov.
"A clue? What clue? Tell me about it," Chi Xue pressed.
"You'll know when we get to the street ahead."
The tank turned around and drove out from another street corner, and the scene before them suddenly opened up:
The central urban area of Foxkov was almost completely razed to the ground, with ruins and burned vehicles everywhere. The central shopping mall, which was originally intended as an evacuation point, had been replaced by unfamiliar buildings, with twin spires towering high, their tops meeting in a golden-red flame.
It is reminiscent of the Eye of Sauron in the famous fantasy film, which gazes upon the vast Middle-earth.
Hyacinth turned her head to look at Fox and Red Snow, who were huddled together observing the head mirror, and chuckled as she gave them a thumbs up.
"So, Senior Chixue, and Xinyuehu, would you like to go there and investigate?"