Chapter 357: Long Time No See, Starscream (Part 2)

Suburbs, Severodvinsk Naval Base.

Fifty-seven minutes had passed since the initial invasion alarm sounded in the naval port by the time Lieutenant General Vadronov arrived at the naval base located in the suburbs, escorted by a convoy of armored vehicles.

"General, it is truly fortunate that you have arrived here safely. This is a document just transmitted from Arkhangelsk; after the Ministry of National Defense learned of what happened here, they have ordered Arkhangelsk to assist us with all their might to eliminate all incoming targets!"

Although, strictly speaking, this base in the suburbs was the headquarters of the Russian Northern Fleet's Severodvinsk Naval Base, the Lieutenant General happened to be inspecting a command center inside the naval port when it was invaded early this morning. Now that he had been protected by soldiers and brought to a relatively safe place, this experience was more embarrassing for a typical Russian soldier like Vadronov than dying on the front lines.

However, the Lieutenant General had no choice but to do so, because this was an order from above.

Taking a deep breath to calm the turmoil in his heart, Lieutenant General Vadronov looked at his adjutant with a gloomy expression, "Qierkefu, I need to know the situation on the front line immediately..."

"Yes!"

His adjutant gave a military salute and then led him into the command headquarters immediately. There should have only been a small number of night-shift personnel left there, but now it was fully staffed; one could see the busy figures of adjutants, Staff Officers, and technical personnel coming and going.

"... Commander, please look at the electronic map. We previously reached a cooperation consensus with 'Number Two' for him to lure the invaders away from the naval port and the city area to the suburbs, where we would have a decisive battle in our Area Three and concentrate our forces to eliminate the invaders... But although that is the plan, it seems very difficult to achieve at present..."

As soon as they saw the Lieutenant General arrive at the command headquarters, a Staff Officer immediately gave a military salute and then began to brief him on the current battle situation.

Vadronov nodded first, then his brows furrowed.

Number Two was the internal code name given by the Russians to the "Precursor" responsible for guarding the Severodvinsk naval port; as the person in charge of the Severodvinsk naval port, he naturally knew this.

Even this plan to lure the four invading Decepticons to the military target range used by the United States Marine Corps in the suburbs of Severodvinsk and then eliminate them was designed by him personally more than half an hour ago, after he learned that the Precursor was trying to enter the naval port's command center to see him and realized the severity of the matter.

However, it was clear that the Lieutenant General and his men had clearly overestimated the combat power of the Precursor, as well as the combat capability of the Russian soldiers when encountering alien mechanical lifeforms.

The Precursor had indeed tried very hard to lure the four invading Decepticons out of the city; the Russian Army had even committed two battalions of troops and a considerable amount of heavy weaponry, including over a dozen armed helicopters.

But even so, they still failed to lure the invaders out of the city as they had hoped, and the fighting was now deadlocked in the northwestern urban area of Severodvinsk near the naval port.

For this, they had paid the price of at least 8 T-62 series tanks that were temporarily transferred there, over twenty Infantry Fighting Vehicles, and two armed helicopters destroyed by the Decepticons, with casualties among the soldiers exceeding three hundred, not counting those who could not be contacted for the time being and whose status—whether they were just scattered or already killed—was unknown.

Yet the results achieved were very pathetic; the invaders had only been lured to an urban area about ten kilometers away from the naval port. Although Severodvinsk had a population of only over two hundred thousand, which seemed very sparse compared to the vast area of the city, more than ninety percent of these two hundred thousand people were concentrated in the urban area, especially in the northwestern district near the naval port; it would be no exaggeration to call it the commercial center and most densely populated area of this port city.

Because they failed to lure the invading alien mechanical lifeforms out of the city as hoped, the Russian Army's heavy firepower weapons capable of large-scale area coverage could not be deployed to the battlefield. If not for the armed helicopters being able to cause considerable damage to the Decepticons, I am afraid those four invading mechanical Warriors would have already destroyed the entire city.

Even so, according to the intelligence passed back from the front line, under the strikes of over a dozen armed helicopters, a small amount of heavy weaponry, and the Russian Army, it was currently certain that two of the invading Decepticons were injured, but the injuries did not seem to affect those two mechanical Warriors much; they were still cruelly destroying everything everywhere.

"Trouble..."

After reading it, the Lieutenant General's face became even uglier.

He asked his adjutant, "How did the city government respond? Have the citizens near the combat zone been evacuated?"

"Commander..." The adjutant hesitated, "You forgot that you previously issued the order for martial law. The police cannot get in, and we do not have enough manpower to arrange an evacuation. Plus, the fighting there is intense, so I can only say..."

"May God help them..."

After the Lieutenant General muttered this, his eyes immediately became fierce, and he almost immediately ordered loudly, "Immediately... dispatch a battalion of troops to protect the citizens' evacuation, have all armed helicopters that can still fly, take off... Also, tell Arkhangelsk one more thing: I want to see Air Force fighter jets within fifteen minutes, otherwise, let them explain it to Moscow themselves..."

"Yes, Commander. I will go arrange it right away..."

The adjutant had just turned to leave when an emergency call came in from the radar monitoring center, "... Warning, an unidentified flying object has been detected flying toward Severodvinsk at a speed exceeding Mach 7. It is currently less than 30 kilometers away from the city area. Requesting to launch Anti-aircraft missiles..."

"Almost there, I'll be there soon!"

Whizzing past at a terrifying speed of over Mach 7 at an altitude of forty thousand meters, Sun Cheng easily left behind the human passenger planes he encountered from time to time. Enjoying the surging power brought by his New Body and form, Sun Cheng felt unexpectedly great, even though he was still worried about Severodvinsk.

Awesome!

It was truly too awesome!

Perhaps at this very moment, only this word could describe his current mood.

Changing to a New Body could indeed improve his strength immediately, but before changing to the New Body, without Atlas and the others needing to remind him, Sun Cheng himself had realized one drawback of changing to a New Body.

Not enough energy!

Undoubtedly, this was a drawback that would inevitably be encountered after changing to a New Body. Sun Cheng had experienced it before; he had originally clung to the powerful thigh of an attacker to be able to change his body.

Later, if not for accidentally finding the AllSpark in the United States' Sector 7 and obtaining a Spark under its incredible power, his original Core would have long been unable to bear the consumption of his body.