Chapter 908: News

After staying on Mars for a brief month, Sun Cheng inspected the entire Mars Base with unprecedented seriousness for the first time.

To him, this was likely the final rear-area inspection before the war.

After concluding his examination of all factories and defensive facilities at the Mars Base, he once again boarded a specially modified Golden Eagle Armed Transport Ship and, together with two pilots, embarked on the return journey to Earth.

Because of this return trip, the transport ship pushed its speed to the absolute limit for the entire duration.

Traveling faster than they had on the way there, Sun Cheng and his party returned to Earth once again after a dozen or so days.

As soon as the ship landed on a landing pad at Base No. 2 in South America, before he had even stepped off, he sensed a powerful electromagnetic spectrum.

It was Leiting!

It was evident that he had rushed over in a hurry from the Central Main Control Base.

"Something must be the matter!"

Sun Cheng could feel the intense electromagnetic fluctuations on Leiting, much like how human emotions undergo drastic changes when they are agitated.

And after he stepped out of the ship, just as he had anticipated, Leiting walked up quickly to pay his respects before informing him of some very bad news.

"Master, in the month or so that you were away, some very bad changes have occurred on Earth. The Autobots have replaced their leader, and Sentinel Prime has already wiped out most of the Decepticon Legion's strongholds in Africa that were with us."

It was indeed very bad intelligence, although from the moment Sentinel Prime awoke, Sun Cheng had already guessed that this King of Primus would become the greatest source of instability.

But he had still thought that the existence of Optimus Prime would, to a certain extent, keep Sentinel Prime's ambitions in check.

After all, Optimus Prime, who now held the Matrix of Leadership, was too powerful; not only was Sun Cheng himself no match for him, but even the former commander of the Decepticon Legion, who was once hailed as the strongest—Megatron—might not be his match now either.

"Tell me about it in detail!" he asked Leiting.

"Yes!"

"The intelligence we currently have is also very limited. We only know that about 7-10 days after you left, a small-scale military coup seemed to have occurred in New Iacon. After that, Sentinel Prime was reinstated as leader by some Autobots! Shortly thereafter, he began leading the Autobots himself to launch a sweep of the strongholds belonging to us and the Decepticon Legion within Africa."

It was not surprising that the base could not obtain first-hand intelligence from New Iacon.

As one of the tacit understandings between Sun Cheng and Optimus Prime, both leaders, who were attempting to ease the conflicts between their respective races and hoping for cooperation, tacitly controlled their subordinates to prevent them from operating within the other's sphere of influence.

However, because the Autobots had collaborated with the United States government for a long time, their development on Earth had started much later, and they had not even fully digested the eastern and northern parts of Africa yet.

Therefore, the base also tacitly avoided letting its subordinate Decepticons operate in the East Africa and Beifei Diqu regions, and since Africa was the region with the richest mineral resources on Earth, Sun Cheng and his people naturally would not miss out on it.

Starting a year ago, the base had successively built a batch of mines in the Central Africa, West Africa, and South Africa regions—mines that didn't even count as sub-bases—and dispatched some Decepticon Warriors there to control robots to mine in areas unreachable by human footprints.

And the strongholds of theirs that had currently been wiped out by Sentinel Prime were those very mines located within Central Africa.

Sun Cheng listened patiently to Leiting's introduction, his brow already furrowed.

Losing some mines in Africa did not make him feel particularly pained.

He was more curious about what the Autobots, and Optimus Prime in particular, were thinking.

After thinking for a moment, Sun Cheng continued to ask: "What is the situation with Optimus Prime? Is he still in New Iacon?"

Although they had a tacit understanding not to send Decepticons into the Autobots' 'sphere of influence', intelligence gathering on the Autobots was still indispensable.

Previously, in order not to arouse the vigilance of the Autobots, the base had only launched a few 'weather satellites' responsible for collecting intelligence on the Autobots in Africa.

The intelligence provided by Leiting regarding the Autobots was based partly on speculation, but mostly came from those few satellites.

Regarding that young leader of the Autobots, Leiting did not know much either.

"Regrettably, Commander. We only know that Optimus Prime left New Iacon, and he left alone. But shortly after, some other Autobots also left; it looked like Ironhide, Ratchet, and the others."

Optimus Prime leaving alone was clearly because he did not want to cause a split within the Autobots.

It was just a pity that the group of Autobots under him clearly did not want to submit to the tyrant-like Sentinel Prime.

Even if Optimus Prime did not want it, those Autobots who had come to Earth had already split.

Returning to Base No. 2, the majority of the high-ranking Decepticon Warriors who had remained at Base No. 2 under Sun Cheng were already waiting in the command room.

Sun Cheng had come directly here under Leiting's guidance, and the moment he entered the door, all the Decepticons stood up to salute him instantly.

"Greetings, Commander!"

Sun Cheng nodded and sat down in his designated seat.

The ship he took back to Earth had already been captured by a satellite launched by the base when it entered the Earth-Moon system.

That was why Leiting and the others had prepared in advance and were waiting here for the meeting.

"... The current situation in Africa is very tense. According to information fed back by the satellites, the Decepticon Legion has basically abandoned all its strongholds within Africa..."

"... And Sentinel Prime and the Autobots are still constantly advancing..."

"... We have already lost all our mines in Central Africa... Should we abandon those mines in North Africa and South Africa next?"

The command room was very lively; some familiar Decepticons were gathered in groups of three or five, all whispering to each other.

Sun Cheng did not stop them; he was also seriously considering the gains and losses.

As for the mineral resources in Africa, apart from uranium and a few rare earths, they were also distributed here in South America, which was equally rich in minerals.

Even uranium ore could be purchased through the Black Market from several established European powers and the Polar Bear; in a sense, it could be abandoned, though the costs would increase somewhat.

What Sun Cheng was truly concerned about was how the Decepticon Legion had so easily abandoned their strongholds within Africa.

One had to know that according to data captured by satellites launched within the base over the past few years, the Decepticons had at least thirty or forty mines in Africa.

Although a single stronghold of theirs might only be garrisoned by five or six Decepticons, and they were almost all Cannon Fodder-like clone warriors, they could still provide the Decepticon Legion with massive amounts of mineral resources every month.

Such strongholds had also existed in South America in the past.

It was only later, after Base No. 2 was established and Sun Cheng's strength grew rapidly, that they wiped out all those Decepticon mines hidden in places inaccessible to humans.

However, because he had guessed that the true owner behind those mines was likely Starscream, he had not gone too far; he adopted an expulsion policy for most Decepticons, and only destroyed the very few who fought to the death and refused to retreat.