Chapter 535: 3rd Star Yuan

Wooooooo!

Countless air-raid sirens wailed across the scarlet fog, echoing through the sky. Along the entire hundred-mile-long train formation, the air was filled with screams of shock and despair. Even the Guard Brigade soldiers operating mechs on the front lines looked up in a daze, their eyes filled with confusion. In an instant, fear descended from the sky like a catastrophic flood!

Inside the command center, General Lao Shaokai's clenched fists trembled slightly, and bloodshot veins appeared in the corners of his eyes. Dozens of Guard Brigade officers currently on the command channel held their breath, unable to utter a single word.

"Sir, the aerial detection shows it's less than 100 kilometers behind the 13th Guard Brigade's rear line!"

"Super-high dark energy radiation impact detected! Increase all-band dark energy resonance frequency devices to maximum power!!!"

"Report: T34-T41, T65, T72-T90... T122, T198... over 30 march sectors are showing mutations. Many areas have already opened fire autonomously!"

"Damn it, this ghost of a thing isn't dead yet!!" General Zeng Weiguo shouted angrily over the communication channel. "How did it suddenly appear here!?"

"Is it because we stopped marching for a day?"

"Our marching speed is less than 100 kilometers a day; how could it be following us so closely!?"

"It's too close! What's the plan now?!"

"Don't panic!" General Lao's voice was calm and steady, acting as the backbone of the command. He immediately issued orders: "All defensive lines, deploy into defensive formations immediately! Firestone, Longkun, and Pili fleets, prepare for takeoff! Prepare all nuclear launch units and await orders!"

"Understood!" 13th Guard Brigade Commander General Li Sheng immediately complied. "Mech units, move out! With this thing appearing, the scarlet tide will surely follow. All combat units must immediately deploy multi-layered defensive formations."

"Attention, all train convoy leaders." General Lao called out to the leaders of the various train and vehicle convoys currently on the channel, his voice stern.

"Prepare for all-out combat. There is no support from the Dawn Center this time. Be prepared for the lines to be breached and severed. Once the formation is broken, everyone is to execute our 3rd Star Yuan to break out!"

The so-called 3rd Star Yuan was a wartime protocol formulated by General Lao Shaokai and the various team leaders in the event of a total collapse of the formation. Its core principle was to divide the massive train formation into 25 smaller, self-sufficient "super-train groups" using existing all-terrain locomotive units and the Guard Brigade's large base vehicles. Once the defensive formation was overrun and the train lines were shattered, these 25 groups—capable of all-terrain movement—would abandon the tracks and drag the remaining carriages to break out in different directions.

This plan was not only cruel but also a last resort. Even with powerful all-terrain locomotives, they could not drag hundreds of carriages—stretching for kilometers—very far across the wilderness. The rugged terrain would cause the rear carriages to detach in a very short time. Survivors would be left to their own fate, constantly abandoning massive numbers of carriages to escape. Although preparations had been made—with the majority of the population moved to the front of the dragging carriages and improvements made to the connectors and track wheels—fleeing in all directions through the scarlet fog would be a nine-in-ten-death scenario.

"Understood!"

"Received!"

"Understood."

"T208 sector, Black Stone Forest area, we can already hear movement!"

"T185 sector, the Gale Convoy has observed large-scale vibrations from the northwest!"

"No!! T96 sector, the 7th Heavy Battalion here has encountered a Hunter-class entity. We are... boom, boom..."

The sounds of artillery fire began to erupt in various sectors, filling the communication channels.

General Lao immediately called out to Xiao En and Jian Xuwei. "How is the factory situation? How much distance can we cover with the transfer?"

*Static... *

Xiao En, currently at the Steel Smelting Factory, responded immediately. "It's not very optimistic. We've utilized all production units and every available war resource. We have less than 180 kilometers of prefabricated tracks in total. Adding the 40 kilometers already laid ahead of the Silver Star, that's all we have."

Inside the bustling Steel Smelting Factory, Xiao En looked at the mountain of steel rails stacked by the drones and continued, "Furthermore, considering the terrain, the risk of high-speed laying and marching is extremely high. The speed will not exceed 40 kilometers per hour."

"That's enough!"

Jian Xuwei walked over from the rear, her voice cutting into Xiao En's communication channel. "Once the trains get up to speed, they can buy us several hours of buffer time. Besides, the area toward the Rocky Mountains is entirely flat, consisting mainly of hardened granite and sedimentary rock. If we execute the 3rd Star Yuan there, the survival rate might be higher!"

"And we can use this time to transfer a large number of people from the rear carriages to the fleet and the Sky Dome train, gradually abandoning the rear carriages!" Chen Sixuan's urgent voice also rang out from the Sky Dome train. "So, even if the Steel Smelting Factory plan only succeeds halfway, it will still buy us a lot of time!"

*Hoo! *

General Li Sheng sighed urgently, "It's too unlucky. If only we had one or two more days..."

The Steel Smelting Factory, operating at full capacity, had produced nearly 200 kilometers of prefabricated tracks in just over a day—at least double the previous efficiency. Everyone had hoped that after the hard-fought victory over the S-class entity, they would have bought precious time for escape. As long as the trains could connect to the eastern rail line, the main force could have charged out of North America and into Mexico within a day.

But fate was always cruel. The scarlet tide had not yet arrived, but the super-dark energy radiation released by the terrifying giant eye in the sky had already triggered large-scale mutations among humanity. Countless lives were fading rapidly. Many companions who had been chatting warmly just moments ago had already turned into mutated corpses. Pain and despair spread and intensified, and the wails and screams of the dying echoed through the train formations.

"Shu Qin, Luo Yang, prepare for takeoff! Assist the rear in rescuing people and breaking out!"

On the Sky Dome train, Chen Sixuan immediately mobilized her team to take action.

"Wait!"

At that moment, Mo Nika's voice came through. She was standing on the Sky Bridge of the Sky Dome train, ripples of psychic power flowing in her eyes. The countless sound waves in the world were like a symphony to her ears. Mo Nika scanned the scarlet fog in the distance, her delicate face turning frosty. She spoke slowly:

"The insect tide, the aberrant entities, the zombies—they've all stopped."

"Stopped?" Qian Dele asked immediately upon hearing this. "What do you mean?"

"It means those monsters have stopped moving."

Inside the cockpit of Dragon Mountain No. 1, Shi Di looked at the radar screen. Behind him, Bai Guang panted heavily, staring out the window. She pointed in one direction and whispered, "Right over there, there are dense, countless auras, but they've all stopped..."

Ning Jingjing looked grave. "Stopped? Could they be under some kind of command?"