Chapter 924: Sudden Realization

It was four days later that the invading Decepticons were completely repelled.

"Commander, in the past four days, we have encountered attacks from Decepticon Legion clone warriors in 17 different regions."

"A total of 762 invading clone warriors were killed; our side lost 4 Advanced Warriors and 347 Ordinary Warriors, with 2,792 combat robots of various types destroyed..."

"In addition, we lost seven mines, two factories, four hydroelectric power stations, three mobile detection stations, and one drone..."

"We expended 1,775 shells of various types and 422 missiles of various types..."

Sun Cheng leaned back in his huge metal chair inside the conference room.

He listened quietly to Thunder's report, feeling not much anger in his heart, but rather a deepening sense of confusion.

"What exactly are Starscream and the Decepticon Legion thinking?"

A clone warrior assault of this scale might be able to destroy any country on Earth other than the Big Five in a short time, and even among the Big Five, excluding the three with massive strategic depth, the remaining two European weaklings would also face the danger of annihilation.

But Base No. 2 could handle an offensive like this even if it were ten times larger.

It is just that the losses at that time would likely be more than ten times what they are now.

But what is the point of it?!

If it were just to test the control our side has over South America.

Based on Sun Cheng's understanding of Starscream, he would certainly have dispatched more clone warriors, deployed combat power above the level of Advanced Warriors, and he would even have been willing to bring out a terrifying war monster like Devastator.

Yet, none of these appeared during the previous four days of attacks.

The losses suffered by Base No. 2 did not damage the foundation, and could only be considered a scratch.

Moreover, in Sun Cheng's own view, most of the losses his side suffered were completely unnecessary.

To suffer so many losses while fighting on one's own turf, with the full buffs of intelligence, manpower, and material resources, is unacceptable.

It can only be said that Starscream taught Sun Cheng, and Base No. 2, a harsh lesson.

Their own problems are very significant; a large part of their losses stemmed from South America having been peaceful for too long, leaving the Decepticon Warriors under his command with an insufficient understanding of war and combat.

In defensive warfare and war preparation, Sun Cheng and his team had significant issues.

Although he still did not understand what Starscream and the Decepticon Legion were planning, the problems that had emerged on his side still needed to be addressed.

"What the Decepticon Legion is planning can be put aside for now... but this time, their invasion targeting South America has made me discover many problems that currently exist in the base!"

He gestured to Thunder and asked this Commander he was focusing on cultivating: "You tell me, what problems have you discovered?"

Thunder hesitated for only a moment before rising from his seat, bowing slightly to him, and then speaking.

"Commander, I have discovered three problems so far. First, the area that Base No. 2 needs to manage and control is too large. Although we have divided the entire South American continent into 100 regions and dispatched Decepticons to patrol and guard each one, our numbers are still too few relative to the entire 17 million-plus square kilometers of South American territory!"

Sun Cheng nodded slightly; insufficient numbers were indeed a big problem for them.

"War is drawing ever closer; it seems we must find a shortcut and figure out a way to solve this difficulty!"

Although the technologies for cultivating Decepticons and Humanoid Decepticons obtained from Scalpel had significantly increased the speed and success rate of their side's cultivation compared to before.

But clearly, this improvement was not enough in the face of an impending war, especially given that the scale of this war was clearly growing larger.

In his mind, the images of Jetfire and the Forge of Solus Prime quickly emerged; these were the only two possibilities Sun Cheng could think of that might help them solve this difficulty.

The former was a famous scientist during the peak of Cybertronian civilization. Although he had seen the memories of his predecessor, due to a certain special protection mechanism within Jetfire's body, less than half of Jetfire's memories could be read.

Therefore, although Sun Cheng did not find any information related to Jetfire's expertise in cultivation techniques in the memories he obtained.

This did not mean that such techniques did not exist in the memories that could not be read.

And as for the latter, it goes without saying; the Forge of Solus Prime was the weapon of Solus Prime, one of the Thirteen Primes of Cybertron.

This weapon possessed a powerful self-awareness that far exceeded that of the Requiem Blaster, and Sun Cheng suspected it might very well be the consciousness of Solus Prime.

If his guess was correct, then even if the consciousness of Solus Prime preserved within the Forge of Solus Prime was incomplete, given the former strength of the Thirteen Primes, Sun Cheng felt there was a high probability it possessed similar cultivation techniques.

After all, in the ancient myths of Cybertron, as the only female Prime, Solus Prime was a master weapon smith and was also mythologized as one of the creators of the Cybertronians.

Although Sun Cheng had never had a proper talk with the Forge of Solus Prime—or rather, the Solus Prime consciousness within it—due to some apprehensions.

But he now felt it was time to have a good talk with it.

Thoughts raced through his mind, but this did not affect Sun Cheng's continued presiding over the meeting. "I will urge the Engineer to find a way to solve this aspect; continue."

"Yes! The second problem I discovered is that our warriors have a severe lack of practical combat experience. I have reviewed much of the combat data fed back; although our numbers were indeed at a disadvantage at the start of every engagement, our equipment and chassis strength were superior to the clone warriors... The Ordinary Warriors suffered heavy casualties, and even several Advanced Warriors were lost. Clearly, they overestimated themselves and underestimated the combat power of the clone warriors..."

"Hmm!"

Sun Cheng nodded with some satisfaction. "Thunder, it is not too late to discover these problems now. I will leave it to you and everyone present to solve this problem!"

"Yes!"

After a chorus of responses, Sun Cheng tapped his fingers on the conference table and looked at Thunder, signaling him to continue.

Thunder nodded, gathered his thoughts for a moment, and continued: "The third problem I discovered is that our patrols within South America have been too lax. Perhaps because no one had considered before that the Decepticon Legion would send troops to directly invade South America. Although we had increased patrols in advance, judging by the repeated successful infiltrations by clone warriors, we are still too... hmm?"

Before he could finish his sentence, he suddenly stopped as if he had received some information, his face showing a listening expression.

All the Decepticons in the conference room felt the emergence of a communication signal, but no one chose to forcibly decrypt it, including Sun Cheng.

This was the connection between the Central Main Control Intelligence and Thunder, the base commander he had personally appointed; even Sun Cheng would abide by the rules he had set.

The communication ended quickly. Thunder suddenly turned to look at Sun Cheng, his voice filled with a hint of disbelief.

"Commander, one of our spy satellites over Africa just detected an astonishing number of Decepticons landing in the West Africa region. If nothing goes wrong, it should be a military operation targeting Optimus Prime!"

As soon as these words were spoken, Sun Cheng suddenly realized the truth.