Chapter 604: Chapter 424 Initial Test
Having gained experience from the recent battle, the Imperial Court’s Sharp Blade Team quickly arrived at the next cluster of skeletons’ location, supported by drone intelligence circling in the sky.
Despite having the experience of eliminating skeletons before, this time they did not continue with the same tactics; the reason was quite simple. Rather than just eliminating the skeletons, they needed a more direct test of the skeletons’ combat capabilities.
In fact, if it were not for the emergence of the fog, which obscured their view, they would not have resorted to bombs to directly eliminate the skeletons. Instead, they would have first tested with thermal weapons, measured the skeletons’ resistance to such weapons, and then progressively employed various combat methods for a more detailed practical combat test on the skeletons.
Unfortunately, the appearance of the fog today disrupted their original plan. After notifying Command Headquarters, the headquarters authorized the use of bombs to test the skeletons’ defense capabilities to prevent unnecessary damage.
After confirming that the skeletons were unable to withstand high-dose explosives carried by individual soldiers, they continued to reduce the dosage of the explosives used to determine the actual range of the skeletons’ defense values.
However, the presence of the fog was indeed troublesome, as skeletons had no body temperature, so they currently had no equipment capable of ascertaining the exact number of skeletons within the fog.
With the obstruction of the fog, they could not see the real-time status of the skeletons through naked eyes, so even though they could throw explosives into the fog to shatter the skeletons, they were unable to understand the actual damage caused by the explosions due to the fog’s cover.
Watching the fog ahead changing its direction of movement and drifting towards them as they approached, a teammate who had buried the bombs looked at the leader of the Sharp Blade Team with a questioning gaze.
As a Martial Artist, he was instantly aware of such direct gazes. However, due to their long time spent together, he didn’t need to look back at his teammate’s eyes; he could guess the questioning intent his comrade wanted to convey simply by feeling.
Therefore, without turning his head, he made a dismissive gesture, and after pausing to think for a moment, he spoke directly, "Bring the Blockade Ropes with you, set up three lines with the Blockade Ropes at heights of 50, 100, and 150 in the rear."
Unlike in a Hunting Team, where if team members do not understand the tasks given by the leader, very often the leader must clarify the entire situation before the team members will comply willingly with the leader’s orders.
However, if a rift develops between the leader and the members, the members might skimp on their duties when carrying out the leader’s orders.
This issue does not exist in the China military because in the China’s armed forces, the most important thing for a soldier is to obey military orders. No matter how unreasonable the command may be, once it is officially issued, it must be carried out beforehand, and any disagreements with the content of the order should be reported to the superior only after the mission is completed.
Hence, after the Sharp Blade Team leader gave his orders, although the members looked puzzled, their hands did not slow down at all. Three teammates immediately followed the captain’s commands to set up the Blockade Ropes in the rear.
Due to the emergence of new materials after the disaster, the weight of the Blockade Rope was greatly reduced. Normally, each person would carry about twenty meters of Blockade Rope, but now, without a decrease in weight, the length had increased to about eighty meters.
Before the fog in front approached, the three setting up the trap had already completed the deployment of the Blockade Ropes.
Just as the Sharp Blade Team leader had instructed, the three Blockade Ropes were spaced fifty meters apart.
Seeing that what he wanted had been set up, he immediately led the remaining team members to retreat towards the direction where the interception trap had been laid. During the retreat, the team leader made direct contact with Command Headquarters:
"Sharp Blade Team Three requests aerial reconnaissance support at the moment; ropes have been set to form interception nets at heights of 50, 100, 150. The goal is to test whether we can intercept skeletons within the fog.
Since skeletons have a keen ability to detect living beings, we are requesting assistance from aerial reconnaissance."
Afterward, he heard through the earpiece, "Assistance request received. Expect an answer within three minutes. If no response is obtained beyond this time, make a decision based on the real-time situation."
As the conditions on the battlefield can change in an instant, normally, combat teams have the authority to make decisions during battle. Command Headquarters typically only issues strategic objectives, and the specific implementation is mostly decided by the team leaders on the spot.
The reason for making the request to the superiors this time was because he only had the authority to mobilize one drone. The drone that was exclusively theirs was, with higher approval, left at the site of the recent explosion to observe the aftermath.
However, Command Headquarters had also opened up the rights to operate a nearby drone to them. With one gained and one lost, they effectively still had control over just one drone.
The spacing between the three Blockade Ropes was quite wide. In the absence of fog, a drone could have risen to a higher altitude; although the image quality would be poor, it could still barely monitor the three areas.
