The apocalypse, North America.
A nuclear warhead was found in a rusty cargo ship in an abandoned port ten kilometers from the colony.
It was already late at night when this news went through countless layers of reports before it finally reached the ears of the executives in the North American colony.
Zhuo Guoping was in bed enjoying the meticulous service of two big, blond and blue-eyed exotic girls. When he received the call, he was shocked.
Without much concern for the properness of his attire, he grabbed a blanket and covered himself. He then pushed aside the blonde girl that was kneeling in front of him and rolled over down the bed. He walked to the window, clicked on the holographic screen, and quickly pressed a few numbers. The phone quickly connected to the frontline and he then lowered his voice.
“Nuclear warhead? What nuclear warhead? What’s the matter, didn’t I ask you to collect mud crab roe? Why… why did you find a nuclear warhead?”
“…When we were clearing the nest of the crabs, we found a container suspected of storing nuclear materials in the corner of the cabin. After we opened the container, we found these things inside.”
After the progress bar finished loading, Zhou Guoping’s eyebrows twisted together as he examined the photo transferred to his EP.
Most of the cylindrical object in the photo was covered by seaweed and based on the shape, it did look like combat components that could be mounted on a missile. Based on the yellow radioactive symbol, excluding the nuclear fusion core that did not obviously look like this, the only possibility left with a high probability was a nuclear warhead.
“If this is a nuclear warhead…hiss…” After he took a deep breath, Zhou Guoping asked immediately, “…Can you confirm the model number?”
“We have insufficient intelligence. It is currently impossible to confirm the nuclear warhead model,” Han Peng, the NAC officer in charge, replied. He looked at the nuclear warhead placed in the center of the cabin and frowned. “The seaweed covering the surface of the warhead was extremely corrosive and has caused leakage of nuclear fuel. Since we cannot confirm the warhead model and the safety of the warhead, we are afraid to disassemble the warhead…”
After Zhuo Guoping listened to the report, he was completely lost as to what to do next.
He was not a technologist, other than the fact that he knew fusion and fission happened. Therefore, he definitely had no understanding of nuclear warheads.
And as far as he knew, in order to enrich their nuclear weapons arsenal, the three major powers before World War III had produced a wide variety of nuclear weapons. Not only did they detonate in strange ways, but they were also used for various purposes. Some were dedicated to personnel, some were used against armored targets, some warheads were used to create permanent no-man’s land, and some were designed to eliminate all personnel without damaging the land…
Zhuo Guoping rubbed his tense brows, sorted out his thoughts, and asked.
“What ship did you guys get on? And which port are you at? Can you identify it?”
“The radioactive material was discovered by a civilian cargo ship. The unit belonged to a North American shipping route. The port was likely also a civilian port.” Han Peng looked at the nuclear warhead on the ground and reported to Zhou Guoping, “We checked other containers, except for the ones at the end of the cabin. The rest are toys.”
“Wait, you said there are still other containers carrying nuclear warheads?” Zhuo Guoping suddenly noticed the keywords and he hurriedly followed up, “How many are there?”
“Twenty.” Han Peng answered truthfully.
Zhou Guoping’s breathing instantly shortened.
Twenty strategic nuclear warheads!
Why does he need to raise Mud Crabs as a side-hustle? He could just pull these nuclear warheads back to the Sixth Street. Regardless if these warheads work or not, they will surely be sold at a good price!
NAC’s nuclear weapons reserves had always been low (because of the cumbersomeness to explain, the difficulty of transportation, and the existence of crystals as a substitute, Jiang Chen had hardly sent nuclear fuel to the apocalypse). Even though nuclear bombs in the warehouse could flatten a few street blocks, eliminate a dozen tanks, but NAC still relied on tanks and airships to deter other survival forces.
It was no exaggeration to say that if he sold the twenty pre-war nuclear warheads he discovered to the logistics department, he could easily exchange them for two million credit points and could even be considered an honor.
However, what really made his breath shorten was not these twenty nuclear warheads, but the words Han Peng spoke of after-
These containers with nuclear warheads were shipped with containers full of toys!
What was the reason that these civilian cargo-carrying toys also secretly transported twenty strategic nuclear warheads?
Zhou Guoping could conclude that these nuclear warheads were placed on the ship because of NATO officials, otherwise, any inspection could detain these weapons without any chance of being loaded onto the ship.
Since he could infer that NATO officials hid the nuclear warheads on the ship, then he had to answer the next question. If this ship did not encounter any accidents, where was its destination? Why was it stranded at this port outside Los Angeles for so many years?
The intuition of many years of intelligence work told Zhou Guoping that these nuclear warheads were not important anymore.
…
The important piece of information was this ship!
As long as he could determine the destination of this ship that shouldn’t have been stranded here in the first place, he could follow the leads, and then eventually find the ultimate “treasure”!
NATO secret nuclear arsenal…
An obscure treasure map had just been slowly unfolded in front of him.
Zhuo Guoping licked the corner of his mouth, in excitement. He felt his heart was pumping violently.
His hunch told him that it was going to be something big…
…
The first Xin International Defense Exhibition would be held on September 15th in the Heart of the Sea in Coro City.
As the first international defense exhibition held by Xin, the invited participants were either members of the Earth Defense Alliance or countries that expressed their intention of joining the alliance. The purpose of this defense exhibition was also obvious. In addition to strengthening military cooperation between member states, it was also looking for overseas buyers for the growing military giant, Future Military.
The export of weapons was one of the ways to export values and influences. The significance of a missile was not only to deter a country but also to firmly bind the interests of two countries.
Among the fifty countries invited, all without exception stated that they would send senior officials to attend. Although everyone was aware that the most coveted EMP weapon and optically invisible kinetic skeleton were not likely for sale, they were still willing to come and try their luck.
Future Military’s weapons would certainly not be shabby, no one doubted this point!
In addition to Future Military, the darling in the eyes of compradors and military analysts, there were also 780 companies registered to appear in this defense exhibition. Among them, there were many international military industry giants such as Hua’s Aviation Science Group, Russia’s Almaz-Antey, Italy’s Leonardo, Dutch’s Airbus. These companies also took advantage of this opportunity to demonstrate their masterpieces.
As for the top UA military industry giants in the world, because they did not receive an invitation from Xin, they, unfortunately, could not attend this defense exhibition. However, their absence did not affect the quality of the defense exhibition. Under the close watch of the world, the first Xin International Defense Exhibition finally kicked off…