Chapter 49: Nazca Base
Chapter 49: Nazca Base
Tomorrow is Earth Calendar’s New Year. Before New Year, Li Yu, Han, and the last group of personnel that are moving from the South Pole Base loaded up the ship with supplies, and arrived together at Southern Peru’s Nazca wilderness. Headquarter of 1st Legion and the undeveloped Class-B extinction site are all located here as well.
Sitting on the plane looking down, the first sight was the well-known Nazca Lines, a line stretching for several kilometers, constituting a variety of vivid patterns engraved above the field, and its origin still remains a mystery up to this day.
Hercules Transporter skipped those miraculous patterns, and the atmosphere changed suddenly when an enormous interstellar warship appeared into their sight.
This is the Air Fortress class cruiser, Atlantic Cruiser. Its length covers more than 1500 meters, width expanding to nearly 400 meters. 30 stories high, 6 main artilleries at the front and back, 18 secondary side cannons as support, 4 linkage missile launchers, two fixed space torpedo launchers, and two decoy launchers and so on, the Atlantic Cruiser is equipped with a series of heavy firepower attack means.
Atlantic Cruiser carries 800 crewmembers. As Earth United Government’s only interstellar cruiser, Atlantic shoulders the important mission of guarding Earth.
Unfortunately, although Atlantic has incredible firepower, there’s only one which can’t protect every corner of Earth. Those space raiders are currently taking advantage of this to carry out hit and run tactics, normally fleeing before Atlantic even arrives.
After crossing the Atlantic Cruiser, they saw the 1st Legion headquarter, which is also the entrance to the B-class Extinction Domain.
Numerous white circular buildings surrounded the entrance to the domain, over 10 thousand espers are guarding on Atlantic Cruiser, and so if the raiders plan to destroy to Earth’s B-class domain again, they will have to check if they got what it takes.
Christmas just passed and it’s New Year’s Eve, but there’s no colorful lights nor celebration at the base. The Hercules landed in solitude just a few miles away from the airport.
Han followed Li Yu and got on a jeep towards the base. On the way, he saw many soldiers jogging in the dark night, people holding thick books and studying under the outdoor lights, and the training facilities were crowded as well.
The jeep stopped at the back of the base, Li Yu looked around and said in a deep voice, “Next year is the Galactic Meet, everyone in the legion is very nervous, so when Long Chuan proposed to have a New Year celebration, no one responded at all, and that’s how much pressure everyone is under right now.”
“Come with me, I will take you to see another group of young men that are participating in the Pressure Exam.”
The Nazca base has a separate spherical building saved for the most promising group of talents that are attending the Galactic Meet. They deemed Han as one of them, so Li Yu took him to see his future comrades.
“Your department is the expansion of the headquarters’ talent team. There were originally 7 little monsters under the age of 30 but reached 4-stars. Now, plus the 32 espers selected on Earth that have the hope of making it to the Galactic Meet, there’s a total of 49 members.”
“Your supervisor is Long Chuan, he is also the captain of Atlantic Cruiser. Because of how busy he is, you might not always get to see him. Also, your good buddy Cheng Zhong is also here.”
Han nodded, he has already heard of the famous Long Chuan, who was one of Ke Lake’s 3 teachers. Comparable to Li Yu and Talin, the three figures have made an indelible contribution to Earth.
Now they all occupy pivotal positions in the United Government, with Li Yu being the Chief of the Extinction Domain Administration, Talin being the Chief of Headquarter, and Long Chuan taking over Earth’s most important military power, the Atlantic.
As elsewhere, there is no celebration in the training camp. Han and Li Yu came straight to the training center, only to see Fatty Cheng Zhong training his leg muscles, doing exercises while chewing nonstop on a bucket of beef jerkies.
Compared to the first time Han saw him a few months ago, Cheng Zhong got a lot fatter again, with cheeks bulging and belly almost sticking to heaven.
“Han!”
Cheng Zhong saw Han and he immediately ran towards him while holding his bucket of beef jerky, As he ran, the training center’s alloy floor trembled as well.
“Brother, I missed you man!” Chen Zhong shouted in a very affectionate voice.
Han looked around, “how come only you are here, where’s Monk?”
Chen Zhong curled his lip and said, “Monk didn’t pass the pressure exam and got eliminated, he’s on the Assault team now.”
There are several other people in the training room, and Chen Zhong’s open personality strikes again as he dragged Han and introduced him to everyone.
Li Yu still got other tasks to attend to so he left early, Chen Zhong enthusiastically took Han on a tour around the building. United Government spent a lot of money on this promising group of youths to prepare them for Galactic Meet, the training center has a personal simulation pod for everyone and also all kinds of training facilities.
It’s been awhile since he last saw Chen Zhong, and just as Han was excitedly chatting with him, a cold voice suddenly came to Han’s ears.
“You are Han?”
Han turned around and saw 7 people walking out from the training center. They are all really young, and the obvious difference between them and others is that they are each in decent quality combat suit and wearing a 4-star honor badge on their chest.
Han knew, they are the legendary 7 geniuses from Headquarter. Being able to reach 4 stars before the age of 30, these people all have impeccable potential. As for Han and Chen Zhong and the others, they are all late-comers to the department, and they are all 3-star espers.
It looks like these geniuses aren’t that gregarious, especially the tall, thin blond young man that’s leading the group, his eyes are somewhat domineering, has a flat mouth that coldly shouted Han’s name.
Speaking about them, the biggest difference between Han and the 7 geniuses is the sheer force of character. Although his level isn’t as high, but Han fought real battles, saw blood, and also witnessed the kind of cruel and merciless fights at Broadcast of Death. Although Han’s younger, but he seems more calm.
Slightly smiling, Han reached out his hand and got ready to shake hands, “I am Han, haven’t asked what your name is brother?”
The tall blond youngster hesitated, reluctantly reached out and gave a little “high five” to Han’s palm, and frowned, “You are very late. As of now, everyone is here.”
“The old saying goes, no rules then there’s no results. Tonight we will elect the battalion commander and a deputy battalion commander so that we can also have a voice and a backbone for subsequent activities.”
Han doesn’t have any objections but Chen Zhong already retreated to the side.
Chen Zhong seemed to be a bit angry at them, “These guys are most annoying. Just because they are higher level, they show no respect to all the late-coming 3 star warriors. They don’t even train with us, and they always act alone.”
After talking with Chen Zhong, Han knows that the tall blond youngster is called Xin Beige, Germanic origin, intermediate 4 star level, and among all 49 people in the training camp he’s the only one that reached such a high level.
Of course in a battle, level doesn’t mean everything. Experience, courage, power and so on are all important factors.
Xin Beige really has a great surge of leadership gesture, he gathered all 49 students into the exercising room and said in a deep voice, “I suggest, we perform simulated battles to pick out the battalion commander, and the deputy commander will be picked by the commander. After that, everyone have to listen to the commander’s arrangements, stick close together and grow this department into the strongest combat team as soon as possible.”
“We old genius battalion all agree to elect me as a candidate for commander, you late-comers can elect a candidate now.”
Han slightly frowned, he’s not very impressed by Xin Beige’s decision. After all, everyone belongs to the same training camp and are fighting for the same goal, there’s no need to distinguish between veteran members and late joiners.
Xin Beige stroked his blond hair, scanned the field of audiences and said in a deep voice, “Then, if you guys have no other opinions, I will be the commander, and I appoint Ann Beibei as the deputy commander, who is also a very outstanding member among us old members.”
Ann Beibei is a very lively girl, looks like in her early 20s, has a nice tanned skin and a pair of slender legs. When Xin Beige mentioned her, she smiled and waved at everyone, she obviously has an open and cheerful personality.
“I disagree!”
The decision was almost settled and Chen Zhong suddenly shouted, “I think Han is more qualified than you to be the battalion commander. Unlike us, he once single-handedly blocked a dozen times more enemies and protected the Earth’s vital C-class Extinction Domain. Talking about battle experience, Han is 100 times stronger than you guys! If you put yourself in Han’s shoes that day, do you think you can block them?”
Chen Zhong suddenly carried out Han and that slightly stunned him. Xin Beige’s face doesn’t look in a good now, he has always considered himself as a genius and thought he’s better than everyone else.
“If not satisfied, you dare to fight?” Xin Beige said coldly.
“Of course, you think we are afraid of you?!” Chen Zhong immediately rolled up his sleeves, and revealed his arms which are even larger than other people’s thighs.