Chapter 761.2: Intense Battle On Sandbar Island

Like Ample Time, Old White immediately passed the operational plan to the security personnel reinforcing the southern defenses.

Watching the New Alliance soldiers take over defensive duties, the guards exchanged puzzled looks.

"... Feels like there's nothing left for us to do." One bearded guard stubbed out his cigarette and tucked the butt into a trash bag in his pocket, staring blankly at the soldiers busily reinforcing the defenses.

He couldn't shake the strange feeling that, compared to those men, he, with all his expensive equipment, looked more like a civilian.

Old White, who happened to overhear him while directing the work, laughed. "What are you talking about? There's still plenty for you to do. Don't think you can dump everything on us." After a brief pause, he continued, "Take your families to the shelters now. Stay away from the coastline. In two hours, we'll airdrop supplies into the center of the island to help you establish temporary camps. Once everything is secure, we'll notify you to return home."

Receiving his assignment, the guard immediately straightened his back and gave an imperfect imitation of a New Alliance salute. "Yes, sir!"

Seeing the rather comical salute, Old White chuckled and patted him on the shoulder. "That's more like it. Keep your spirits up. Since you've already found the courage to come this far, don't give up halfway. Finish what needs to be done."

The guard took a deep breath and nodded firmly, though confusion still lingered in his eyes. Seeing the New Alliance officer preparing to leave, he couldn't help calling out again. "Wait... may I ask something? I don't understand. Since you were this well prepared, you could've driven Chalas off the island before we even started our uprising. Why wait until today?"

Old White grinned. Other players might not know, but he did. Ample Time really had drafted such a contingency plan. Namely, before Chalas had fully consolidated Sandbar Island's defenses, the New Alliance would use Ring Island's airport as a staging base to seize Sandbar Island by force, expanding the Southern Sea New Alliance's territory from four islands to five.

Compared to Ring Island's mere 30 square kilometers, Sandbar Island, with its flatter terrain, lower population density, and location closer to the center of the Southern Seas, was clearly a much better site for a New Alliance air base. In fact, the Southern Sea New Alliance leadership had hoped for exactly that. Commander Li had even proposed risking the fleet to provide cover for the landing operation.

The proposal had been submitted to the New Alliance’s administrator, which had gone so far as to draft the full operational and execution plans.

Unfortunately, it had never received the administrator's approval.

"Equality imposed by force isn't true equality. It's alright if you don't understand. I don't understand everything either. But I believe our administrator can lead us to end this wasteland, just as we believed he could lead us against the Bonechewer Clan and the Tide."

Old White squeezed the man's shoulder once before letting go. "Now go do your job, just like we're doing ours."

As he spoke, a thunderous explosion shattered the calm sea. A dense stream of tracers arced across the sky like a giant whip before erupting into two fiery explosions.

Moments later, the voice of a Goblin Corps’ pilot came over the radio. "This is Light Wind! The enemy destroyer's anti-air screen is too dense! Our missiles can't penetrate their point-defense system!"

The Federation Navy had been built with the Army as its hypothetical enemy. Naturally, it wasn't foolish enough to neglect air defense. Moreover, a destroyer's primary roles were anti-submarine and anti-air warfare. Chalas had assigned a destroyer to escort the landing ship precisely because he had anticipated the New Alliance's air superiority, and General Li Minghui's submarines.

Still, no one had expected them to be equipped with close-in weapon systems as well...

Old White frowned slightly.

Just then, another message arrived from Southern Sea New Alliance Headquarters. "The enemy landing ship and escorting destroyer are now 20 nautical miles south of your position. We've detected 27 sonar and radar contacts within a 150 nautical mile radius around Sandbar Island... We can't determine which contact is genuine. Can your air force take a look?"

27 contacts spread across 150 nautical miles.

Old White's expression turned grim. "... I've already relayed the request to our air force. Please have your submarines continue searching the surrounding waters."

The Southern Sea New Alliance’s operator replied immediately. "Understood!"

Due to the peculiar conditions in low orbit, the wasteland possessed no strategic satellites. And even if it did, pinpointing the exact location of a fleet across the vast ocean would hardly have been an easy task.

After ending the call with the Goblin Corps, Old White immediately switched to his squad voice channel and updated every member on the battlefield situation.

"The enemy intends to assault our southern defenses! Everyone, prepare for battle!"

A chorus of powerful voices answered over the comms.

"Copy!"

The company of 120 soldiers split into 3 teams, establishing triangular defensive strongpoints among the buildings along the island's southern coast. At that same moment, out upon the sea, once again returned to silence, two massive warships gradually emerged into view.

According to intelligence provided by the Southern Sea New Alliance, one of them was none other than the North Island Navy's destroyer, the Reef.

The point-defense systems positioned at the bow and stern could unleash a dense barrage of 100 gram kinetic projectiles at a maximum rate of over 10,000 rounds per minute. In other words, they could hurl an entire metric ton of mass into the air in just 60 seconds! A defensive screen formed by those weapons could probably intercept not only missiles and drones, but even artillery shells if they had enough rounds in the air!

Besides its anti-air point-defense systems, the Reef destroyer was also equipped with torpedoes, missile launchers, and a 150mm naval gun. If the ship was allowed to approach the shore, the consequences would be unimaginable!

However, asymmetry worked both ways in the wasteland. That was also the greatest difference between the wasteland and the Earth the players lived in.

The Federation Navy, with more than 150 years of development behind it, was undeniably powerful, but the New Alliance’s land-based weaponry was no pushover either. After being improved by the researchers from Shelter 70, the D-1 Dragon missile developed by Boulder Town Arms Industry had evolved into a ground-launched, ultra-long-range anti-ship variant called the Sea Dragon!

Not long after the Thunderbolt fighters failed to penetrate the defensive screen, a large, box-shaped missile launcher at the far end of the floating airfield outside Ring Island raised its enormous head.

As the launch order was issued, a trail of white smoke burst through the protective cover and shot into the sky, propelling a silver-white missile through the thick clouds.

Like a razor-sharp dagger, the missile traced a parabolic arc before plunging unerringly toward the Reef, which had deliberately exposed itself to the radar systems of both the New Alliance and the Southern Sea New Alliance as bait.

As expected, the Reef’s point-defense systems sprang into action. A dense storm of projectiles erupted from the elevated barrels, surging toward the descending Sea Dragon like a swarm of furious bees!

A blinding light exploded in the sky.

However, it was not the flash of the Sea Dragon being destroyed. It was the missile’s main warhead deliberately detonating after detecting high-speed objects approaching!

Inside the bridge of the Reef, the pupils of the man wearing a peaked cap contracted sharply. The moment the missile exploded, he sensed that something was wrong.

Their radar had detected no enemy vessels in the surrounding waters! That missile had been launched from land!

At the same moment, cries of alarm and furious curses erupted from the row of terminals just ahead of him.

“Radar components overloaded! The transmitter isn’t functioning properly!”

“We can’t lock onto the enemy aircraft!”

“Sonar system malfunction! Damn it!”

“It’s an EMP! Notify the repair team and have them fix it immediately!”

“How long will it take?!”

“The damage isn’t serious... We should have it fixed within five minutes!”

“Five minutes?!”

The Reef destroyer was equipped with a system designed to counter powerful electromagnetic pulses, but activating it required shutting down the active Phased Array Radar and sonar systems and entering radio silence.

However, their attention had been entirely focused on the two aircraft making hit-and-run passes and the submarines lurking somewhere beneath the waves. They had never anticipated that the New Alliance would use a tactic like that.

Relying solely on passive EMP-resistant components was clearly insufficient to completely block a direct strike from a strategic-grade EMP weapon.

The spear and the shield were always relative concepts. No defense was absolutely impenetrable.

For the Reef, losing both sonar and radar was equivalent to having both their eyes gouged out.

The destroyer’s point-defense systems did possess two separate identification devices capable of visually detecting and locking onto airborne objects through optical cameras without relying on radar, but their interception efficiency was undoubtedly inferior. More importantly, there was still the sonar system...

The Southern Sea New Alliance’s three attack submarines were its greatest trump card!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.