Cannon Fire Arc

The commander of the Fifth Air Force approached the colonel of the airborne rangers and said gravely, “You can refuse this mission because the planning time was too short, and it is basically a suicide mission, just to confirm if Rocossov’s tanks are fake or not. To tell you the truth, I personally don’t think it’s worth sending airborne rangers.”

The ranger colonel replied, “General, we’ve been training for a long time in night glider drops for this day. Moreover, we are familiar with nighttime operations and have undergone extensive wilderness survival training, so it’s too early to declare this a certain death march now.”

The commanding officer was at a loss for words for a few seconds before asking, “Are you planning to glide-drop at the outskirts of Yeisk and then approach the city on foot?”

“Yes, we believe Yeisk must have one of Ante’s Sound Array Masters, which is why Rocossov always seems prepared and precisely takes out low-flying reconnaissance aircraft.”

“So we need to land outside the range where the Sound Array Master can listen in. The intelligence we got from our Ante collaborators indicates that while the listening range varies with the individual, overall it’s not as extensive as our new radar, so we just need to land outside that range.”

The colonel drew a semicircle on the map.

The commanding officer asked, “How will you solve the navigation issue? How will you know where you’ve flown to in the dark?”

The colonel replied, “The personnel towing the gliders will bring sextants to correct the aircraft’s position by the stars.”

“Sextants…” the commanding officer marveled, “such an ancient device.”

“As long as it works,” replied the ranger colonel.

The commanding officer stared at him for a few seconds, then gestured to an orderly, “Bring the liquor. And you guys can go back and rest.”

The latter sentence was addressed to the surviving Stuka pilots.

The pilots then got up one by one and left the command headquarters. Outside the door, one could hear them opening up and discussing what Rocossov planned to do with so many armored forces concentrated.

“What else to do but attack? In last year’s winter campaign, he was the general with the most successful offenses in the whole Ante army. Too bad he wasn’t in command of the counteroffensive that followed.”

“I heard they called him back to execute Ante generals who had been negligent. He would personally pull the trigger, executing the errant Ante generals one by one with his service pistol! That’s what the captured Ante pilot said!”

“Now Rocossov is on the offensive again. I wonder if our airfield will be attacked by him.”

The airfield where the Stukas were stationed was quite far from the front line, yet the pilots were still worried that Rocossov might launch an attack.

The commanding officer was listening to the pilots’ discussion outside when the orderly came with the liquor: “General, the liquor is ready.”

The commanding officer picked up two wine glasses and personally handed one to the colonel before raising his own in a toast: “To your bravery!”

The colonel responded, “To His Majesty the Emperor!”

The Air Force, whether pilots, airborne rangers, or air force field divisions, all believed they were the military branch most favored by His Majesty the Emperor, the Emperor’s own guard, despite the absence of a “royal” title.

As for the newly-formed Asgard Knights, they were just considered younger brothers.

After drinking, the colonel set down his glass, saluted, and then turned to leave.

The commander of the Fifth Air Force watched him leave.

————

At 2200 hours on the 25th, Wang Zhong let out a big yawn and headed towards the bed in the corner of the warehouse—these days he had been sleeping in the warehouse at night, which spared him the trouble of moving around.

Every morning, he would go for a shower behind the curtain in the corner of the warehouse to stay clean.

Especially since it had gotten hot, it was unbearable not to shower.

Wang Zhong lay on the cot with his eyes slightly closed, then habitually changed views to observe his troops.

Although he could not see the specific soldiers, but could only see the symbols of the units, the terrain and street scenes were quite clear, so such “pre-sleep inspections” helped Wang Zhong to deepen his mastery of the terrain.

He could even quickly review the terrain of the entire Army Group deployment area, becoming fully aware of all the ups and downs.

Through these continual “inspections,” Wang Zhong was sure that he was the person most familiar with the terrain of the entire area.

Although he did not know when this advantage would come in handy, it was still an advantage nonetheless.

While Wang Zhong was inspecting, suddenly something flashed across his vision.

He was startled and quickly elevated his viewpoint to find the flashing object, only to discover four bombers, each towing a glider!

Cold sweat ran down Wang Zhong’s back. Just to verify if I had really amassed so many tanks, you guys actually sent airborne rangers too?

Do you have to be that dedicated?

He immediately sprang up from the bed, but he stood up too abruptly, causing a momentary lack of blood to his head, and he lurched to one side.

A squat figure supported him.

Once Wang Zhong came to, he looked down to see it was Nelly.

“Thanks!” said Wang Zhong as he straightened up, then noticed that both Popov and Pavlov were looking over.

Wang Zhong exclaimed, “Air raid!”

Pavlov and Popov exchanged a glance, with the latter saying, “Brother Peter didn’t hear anything. Although he’s resting tonight, he still connects his headphones to a smaller Sound Array system while he sleeps; he would hear such noisy enemy aircraft.”

Wang Zhong retorted, “No, no, no, I… I dreamed that the enemy’s four bombers were towing four gliders to sneak attack us! They’re probably going to air-drop to confirm if those tanks are real or not. Send out the alert troops immediately, equipped with flashlights and torches! Look for gliders!” S~eaʀᴄh the ηovёlFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“I guess the enemy will release the gliders outside of Brother Peter’s listening range to allow the gliders to land silently!”

But Wang Zhong stopped short; even though the gliders’ glide might be silent, the moment they hit the ground they would make noise, right? So Brother Peter would definitely hear that.

“No!” Wang Zhong corrected himself, “The enemy wouldn’t land within the hearing range of Brother Peter. That would alert the Monk; they would land outside of Brother Peter’s auditory range. The enemy doesn’t know exactly how far Brother Peter can hear, so they would use a rather conservative estimate.”

The people in the room without urgent tasks looked at each other. Finally, Pavlov said, “You’ve heard the commander’s order, dispatch all troops with lighting equipment to search for the enemy’s gliders!”

Vasily: “Wait a minute, are we mobilizing just because of the general’s dream?”

Wang Zhong: “No, I’m just being cautious. I’m not certain that the enemy will conduct an airborne operation, not certain! But it’s better to be safe than sorry, right?”

Pavlov: “Yes, better to be safe than sorry. Order the troops to move out! Not only the Yeisk troops mobilize, but each division should also send out a night patrol to search their own defensive area!”

At that moment, the telephone rang.

Pavlov picked up the phone: “Is it Brother Peter? No? Corps Command, who? Report!”

Seconds later, Pavlov put down the phone: “A sentry from the 225th Division has seen shadows moving in the sky! Also heard engine noises!”

Wang Zhong slapped his thigh: “See, I guessed it!”

Vasily gawked at Wang Zhong: “Did you really guess?”

Wang Zhong: “Of course! What else could it be?”

Vasily gesticulated in front of him, scraping together a few words: “Black body radiation? Quantum entanglement? De Broglie transformation? Or some other high-energy physics phenomenon that I don’t understand.”

Wang Zhong: “Whatever! Move out quickly! Eliminate the enemy’s air-landing troops!”

————

Prosen’s paratrooper squad, inside Glider #1. Read the latest on empire

Suddenly the glider pilot yelled, “Colonel! Come take a look!”

The colonel immediately came to the cockpit, pressing down on the two pilots’ seats: “What’s going on?”

“Look!” the pilot pointed to the ground, “It’s all running lights! We’ve been spotted! Landing now would be suicide!”

The colonel gritted his teeth: “Doesn’t matter, continue the landing! We don’t have power and can’t possibly fly back.”

The pilot cursed and pushed the control stick forward.

The colonel then turned to face the paratroopers in the cabin: “The enemy has somehow discovered our operation. Now I judge that the original mission cannot be accomplished, so with my authority, I decide to change the mission objective.

“Survive, use the cover of night to shake off the pursuit of the Ante People, and strive to return to our forces! That’s it!”

The pilot yelled: “Landing! Hold tight!”

The next moment the fuselage began to shake violently, and although everyone was buckled in, they were still jolted harshly.

Suddenly, someone’s safety belt bolt was yanked out, bouncing back and forth in the cabin, eventually striking the colonel’s steel helmet.

The colonel straightened his helmet, holding onto a handle above the cabin with his right hand, relying on the strength of his legs and arms to maintain his stance.

Suddenly, the body sank downward, and the entire tail section tipped upwards!

The pilot yelled: “What’s with this pit!”

A hole dug by a ground squirrel ended up vertically lifting the plane, which was sluicing horizontally along the ground, and it stuck in the ground.

At this point, all the paratroopers became literally “wall-hanging”, hanging on the cabin walls.

The paratrooper whose safety belt had flown off fell straight down, landing with a thud next to the colonel.

The colonel kept his composure: “Everyone, follow my command to rock your bodies. We can level the plane back out! Listen to me, one, two—”

With everyone’s coordinated swaying, the tail of the plane indeed began to sink, and then the fuselage snapped in two.

The rear half fell downwards, while the front half remained hanging.

The colonel shouted: “Don’t panic! The people on the first level, unbuckle your safety belts first!”

Just then, a light swept over from outside!

Light flooded into the glider through every window, illuminating the entire cabin.

The next moment, machine-gun fire raked across, punching a series of bullet holes in the cabin wall.

A paratrooper in the midst of unbuckling his safety belt went still, with blood flowing down the wall.

Outside, the Ante People shouted, but the colonel didn’t understand.

He kicked open the cabin door, shouldered his weapon, and started firing at the figures in the wilderness.

The force of a submachine gun immediately prompted a stormy retaliation.

The colonel was hit by several shots, his body violently trembling like a dancing puppet.

Under the impact, he leaned against the open door of the plane. When the Ante People ceased firing, he slowly slid downwards.

A white edelweiss still pinned to his collar.