Luckily, the commanding officers of Base 012, 014, and 015 were all capable people with foresight. They knew what their main problem was now. They were unable to survive on their own until reinforcements come, so they must work together with the bases nearby. After the end of the conference, Ling Lan made a pact with the three commanding officers, that they would work together and follow a single command.
Ling Lan quickly went to another meeting room after that and communicated what she had discussed to the regiment commanders of the base. She told them about their dire situation and how they might be at the brink of death already. Thus after hearing that, the various mecha clans decided to put down their grudges with each other and cooperate with Ling Lan to prepare for the next battle. Everyone knew that if their base was to be taken over by the Hailiyan army, they would either die in battle or become fugitives. The choice between the two was rather easy, as the Federation had always taught them that it’s better to have a glorious death than live shamefully.
No matter how much power they had, they needed to be alive to enjoy it.
Thus, the four bases managed to survive the first week after losing communication with the Federation. There were multiple small skirmishes all throughout the day and a huge battle would occur at an interval of three days. However, just like what Ling Lan had expected, the situation was getting worse and worse for them. Little Four superimposed the signals of the four bases together to lengthen their reach. He scanned a radius of a hundred kilometers from their base and realized that in the entire east side, almost 99% of the bases were destroyed.
Ling Lan ordered Little Four to send the news that there were still four intact bases from the Federation to the entire east side. She wanted to give those mecha operators whose bases were destroyed but managed to stay alive some hope. She wanted Base 013 to become Utopia of these soldiers. These people might just die on their way to Base 013 but having hope was better than living in despair. She just wished that they wouldn’t act rashly. They should hide and wait for this darkest moment to be over.
At this moment, at the military headquarters of the Huaxia Federation, the people there couldn’t withstand the pressure from the various divisions and the questioning from the government anymore, so they decided to have a video conference with the 23 generals of the 23 divisions.
“Ah Wei, hurry up…” There was a short-haired and well-dressed lady attending the video conference too. She was a news reporter from Internal Military Newspaper, and her name was Wen Qilian. She was an opportunistic person, as ever since she knew that her news agency had a pass to the video conference of the 23 generals, she used all kinds of methods before she finally got this opportunity to attend the conference.
She waved at her assistant and asked him to hurry up. She entered the conference hall at the military headquarters agitatedly. There were already many people in the conference hall. They were all from various news agencies under the military. They would watch the meeting and choose some information to display to the public. This was what the military always did. Anyone that came to attend this conference had their backgrounds checked. They were all soldiers. Yes, although there were reporters, they were qualified soldiers too.
Wen Qilian felt frustrated when she saw that she was a little late. She brought her assistant, Ah Wei, and squeezed through the crowd. The people around her were quite angry at the fact that someone was poking her waist and pushing them aside, but when they saw that she was a lady, they controlled their anger and unwillingly gave some space for her.
Finally, Wen Qilian came to the front of the crowd, and there was a huge screen in front of her. To prevent the reporters from coming too close, sturdy barriers were placed in front of the screen. Fully armed soldiers stood behind the barriers and just looked at them intimidatingly. They were there to remind the reporters to follow orders.
Wen Qilian looked around her and realized most of the people sitting at the very front were ladies. It seemed like the men didn’t want to fight with them.
“General Ling Xiao will attend this conference, right?” Wen Qilian suddenly heard a lady speaking in a dreamy tone.
Wen Qilian cheeks twitched uncontrollably. This was a meeting with the generals of the various divisions so General Ling Xiao would definitely attend it. Which news agency sent such an insensible reporter? Although General Ling Xiao was the most handsome and gentle general of the Federation, they shouldn’t just stare at him all the time. Plus, this conference would affect the life and death of all the soldiers on Planet Haijiao. How could the lady just have her attention on General Ling Xiao?
Wen Qilian would not admit that she fought so hard for this chance so that she was able to see General Ling Xiao too. After all, it was a rare opportunity to see this kind of close up video.
“All reporters, please turn off your communicators. From this moment onwards, you are only allowed to take photos. No recording, videotaping, and no other methods to record sounds or images are allowed.” The rules of this conference were repeated through the speakers in the conference hall. Wen Qilian and the other reporters obediently turned off their communicators. The reporters who came to attend this very exclusive military conference were mostly experienced reporters, so they knew what to do.
One minute later, lasers appeared in the conference hall. They were used to check if the reporters followed the regulations.
Suddenly, the beeping of an alarm was heard and five fully armed soldiers rushed into the crowd to drag a reporter away. Wen Qilian looked at the dragged reporter with disdain. There were always people who wanted to have exclusive content in their articles so they would try to break the rules. The news agency which this reporter worked at would soon be questioned by the military. They might not be able to get any pass to such events in the future.
The inspection lasted for five minutes. No problems were found. Wen Qilian and the other reporters waited patiently for the conference to start.
“Time’s up,” someone shouted and the grey screen in front of them lit up. The various generals appeared on the screen. The screen was split into three rows. There were nine cubicles in each row. The three marshals appeared on the top row right in the middle. In the middle of the second row, the representative from the military was there.
“Ah! General Ling Xiao!” Ling Xiao appeared in the third row. His gentle aura was gone, revealing the stern and serious side of Ling Xiao. The moment he appeared, all the female reporters exclaimed in a low voice.
“Ah! Isn’t that the General of the 13th division, Lieutenant General Qi Yaoyang?” Qi Yaoyang appeared in the 7th cubicles on the second row. He managed to catch the attention of many reporters since he was seated between 70-year-old men.
“Finally, a treat for the eyes.” The reporters got tired of looking at the same faces over and over again. Hence, the appearance of Ling Xiao and Qi Yaoyang lightened everyone’s mood up.
“I officially announce the start of the conference.” The First Marshal appeared in the middle of the first row, announcing the start of the conference.