Through the telescope, Fu Luo had already seen the No. 23 Signal Station in western Beijing, but unfortunately, they didn't seem to be the first ones to realize the importance of the No. 23 Signal Station.

There were already people exchanging fire nearby.

"Stop the car," Yang Ning said to the guard, "Who are they?"

"It seems like there are those from the army, Security Department... and even Ground Forces."

What a mess. How on earth did this motley crew start fighting each other?

Fu Luo muttered in astonishment, "Have they all gone mad?"

"We don't know the current situation at the front line now, but they must have already engaged the enemy in close combat, and it's been less than two hours since the first trace of the enemy was discovered." Yang Ning had the car stopped by the roadside. He observed the chaotic battle not far away through the telescope while speaking in a slow tone, "For our political system, it's impossible to discuss a world-class major decision and reach even a hair's breadth of a result within two hours, but everyone wants to gain control in the shortest time possible. What do you think will happen?"

Fu Luo felt that the explosion at the Ground Forces station might have still left her with some aftereffects. There was always something roaring in her mind.

Fu Xiaoxin had strict requirements for her since childhood, especially after entering adolescence. The extremely high moral standards and orthodox education in military school made Fu Luo feel that her values were almost unshakable.

...As a result, they were shattered to pieces in just two hours!

Although Colonel Yang was still talking about serious matters, his tone had returned to that hypocritical courtesy. Fu Luo no longer felt he was gentle and refined at all, and a chill ran down her spine.

This Yang Ning's true nature was cold-blooded to an unimaginable degree. He was simply a terrorist with antisocial and anti-human tendencies. Fu Luo couldn't figure out how he passed the psychological test to join the military.

This wasn't the only thing she couldn't figure out at the moment.

"So which factions do they all belong to?" Fu Luo tried her best to make sense of the chaotic battle.

Yang Ning: "I don't know either."

Fu Luo finally couldn't help raising her voice, "Don't know? Colonel, if you don't know, what do you plan to do?"

Yang Ning pondered for a few seconds and suddenly turned around to ask, "What department are you from?"

Fu Luo was stunned for a moment and subconsciously replied, "Space Combat Command Department—right, I remember the emergency section of the military handbook mentioned that in this situation, the Security Department represents the country, and we should mediate from their standpoint..."

"I think the military handbook needs to be revised," Yang Ning said. "If I remember correctly, your third year practical course includes an introduction to near-ground mechs and related hands-on practice, right?"

Fu Luo had an ominous premonition.

Yang Ning grabbed her shoulders and lifted the 1.75-meter-tall Fu Luo, making her wonder for a moment if she had transmigrated into a dog.

He stuffed her into the "military vehicle", opened a hidden compartment under the steering wheel, and inside was actually a fingerprint scanner.

Yang Ning reached out and pressed down on it.

Something even more devastating to Fu Luo happened.

That chilling mechanical female voice from the near-ground mech system sounded again in the cockpit, "Fingerprint recognition complete, iris recognition complete, No. 4 mech activated."

Yang Ning pressed the back of Fu Luo's head and pushed her forward hard, "Temporary authority transfer, iris confirmation."

Fu Luo only felt a non-irritating light flash quickly before her eyes. The mechanical voice said, "Confirmation complete, temporary pilot identity confirmed."

Fu Luo: "Don't confirm it, this is illegal!"

Then the car made a few loud noises and the entire outer skin fell off. The cockpit disguised as an ordinary car underwent an earth-shattering change. The silver control panel of the near-ground mech flashed with a dazzling light in front of Fu Luo.

Fu Luo was dumbfounded, "...CX105."

The most offensively powerful near-ground mech in the world.

Rumored to be... one of the trump cards of Earth's domestic terrorists.

"Very good," Yang Ning was quite gratified. "Your foundation is indeed solid, so I can rest assured."

Fu Luo's throat moved slightly as she managed to swallow the bitterness welling up, feeling that she would never be able to face the words "rest assured" again.

Yang Ning, you really did plan to rebel, didn't you!

"We won't mediate, we'll go straight there," Yang Ning said with a smile.

Fu Luo wasn't sure if it was her illusion, but she felt that Colonel Yang's casual words "go straight there" actually had a hidden meaning, such as "flatten them" or something.

Fu Luo's remaining, deep-rooted moral values finally collectively rebelled, "But you can't determine which organizations they belong to at all, and you have no idea which factions they are. You..."

"I don't need to know," Yang Ning interrupted Fu Luo unhurriedly. "I know what I'm doing, do you?"

Fu Luo, wandering between shock and confusion, was instantly at a loss for words.

Yang Ning pointed at the No. 23 Signal Station, "That is our strategic objective this time. I need you to have eyes only for it now! My people haven't systematically studied near-ground mechs and can't handle overly complex operations, so you cover the rear."

Fu Luo's heart instantly rose to her throat—she had never been in real combat. This kind of high-stakes practical course was just for familiarization. Let alone actual combat, even the drills for her class were canceled!

Yang Ning swept his eyes over her expression and immediately understood what was going on.

He finally couldn't help sighing, feeling a sense of a hero's desolate end.

What else could be done?

"Every year, there are millions of cosmic stowaways from the other star system coming to Earth. Conservative estimates say 3-5% of them have dubious origins, not to mention the spies mixed in through legitimate channels." Yang Ning dropped his smile, making his words sound a bit heavy. "Within ten minutes, we must control the No. 23 Signal Station. There can be no more changes."

After he finished speaking, he closed the car door with his hand. The near-ground mech, as if the last component was assembled, quickly shrank and transformed, barely hovering in mid-air. In terms of appearance, it was surprisingly similar to the battleships in the sky!

The ten military vehicles turned into ten near-ground mechs in the blink of an eye.

Sweat covered Fu Luo's palms. Through the bulletproof glass, she saw other military personnel clashing not far ahead and could hear the sound of her own heart beating violently.

Colonel Yang's voice replaced the mechanical female voice and rang out in the small cockpit: "Squad, we are short on manpower and cannot launch a full-scale attack. I will pilot Unit 1 to lead the way, tearing open a passage at the front line of fire. Units 2 and 3 will provide fire cover on the rear flanks, maintaining a distance of no more than ten meters from me. Units 7, 8, 9, and 10 will provide heavy firepower output. Units 5 and 6, be prepared. As soon as we enter No. 23 Signal Station, immediately deploy the electromagnetic net. Unit 4 will bring up the rear and hold off the enemy until the electromagnetic net is opened."

After a one-second pause, Yang Ning said in a low voice, "Let's go."

As soon as he finished speaking, Unit 1 rushed out at full speed, stirring up the air and creating a fierce hurricane, emitting a muffled boom like an air cannon. They were like a strike team launching a surprise attack. At the full speed of the ground mechs, the battle that had required binoculars to see just moments ago was suddenly right before their eyes. This was destined to be a battle that would take place in a flash.

The barrels of the army's digital tanks had not even had time to turn around when the white light of the ground mechs' high-energy blast system had already lit up. With a thunderous boom, two or three tanks were sent flying, and a huge gap was torn in the dense net of gunfire. This time, it wasn't just the enemy's eyes that were dazzled.

Fu Luo felt all the blood in her body boiling, and her heart was pounding so violently that she could barely hold the electromagnetic arc of the ground mech steady.

If she were the commander of the opposing side, what would she do when faced with the sudden appearance of the CX105? It was only at this point that Fu Luo finally realized the gap between new recruits and elites.

However, the opposing commander was obviously far superior to Fu Luo, a clumsy graduate. Faced with such a fierce and almost godlike foe, the commander, whose affiliation was unclear, demonstrated an astonishing reaction speed and battlefield control ability. Before the echo of Unit 1's explosion had even dissipated, the enemy's four attack helicopters immediately targeted the weakness of the ground mechs' lack of air superiority and took off at top speed, attempting to suppress these damn terrorist mechs with aerial firepower.

Just then, Yang Ning's Unit 1 suddenly transformed in the midst of high-speed movement, instantly standing upright. Thanks to Fu Luo's studious note-taking style in all classes, she still remembered that the mech practice teacher had explained - humans' earliest fantasy of mechs was the transforming humanoid type, but it was quickly discovered that this model was impractical in warfare. It would increase the enemy's strike target by more than three times, consume four times as much energy as other forms at the same time to overcome gravity and air resistance, and be more difficult to maintain balance.

Most importantly, in order to avoid being cumbersome, the system circuitry of humanoid mechs would adopt a method that mimicked human neurons, which would increase the difficulty of operating the mech by more than an order of magnitude and place extremely high demands on the personal qualities of the pilot. However, the reason why humanoid mechs were ultimately retained as one of the readily available transformable forms of ground mechs, apart from commemorating humans' early romantic fantasies, was another reason -

Yang Ning had already raised the 45-meter-long large laser sword, with electrons excited by high energy drawing fine electric arcs in the air. Even the built-in equipment of the attack helicopters was inevitably affected by the chaotic magnetic field brought about by the laser sword. Fu Luo heard the screech of air being torn apart, and the four already unsteady attack helicopters were slashed down with one stroke, leaving a trail of scorched marks on the ground extending at least several hundred meters.

In close combat, the high-energy laser sword was invincible! Yes, this was the reason why the humanoid form was preserved, because only ground mechs in humanoid form could be equipped with such a high-precision, high-risk weapon that could easily lead to suicide if not handled properly. With such technology and operation...

Fu Luo felt her lips go dry. Yang Ning was not only rebelling, but he was also prepared for a massacre!

This was fucking antisocial behavior, no doubt about it!

Dense gunfire rang out, and Yang Ning's Unit 1 lunged forward, the huge mech curling up into a ball more nimbly than a little monkey. In the blink of an eye, it retracted the laser sword and returned to its normal shape, charging forward as if nothing had happened under the cover of fire from the two flanks behind it.

The four mechs following closely behind withstood all the pressure from the front, back, left, and right with violent heavy firepower. Yang Ning was definitely not like the rumors said, sitting in an office in the Second Department. His judgment of the enemy's firepower intensity was accurate almost to the point of being flawless. Suddenly, a target prompt flashed on the instrument panel in the cockpit. They were now less than two kilometers away from the No. 23 Signal Station, and it had taken only four minutes and fifty seconds to cross the line of fire in a crushing manner!

"Units 2, 3, 9, and 10, separate and stand guard. Units 7 and 8, provide rear fire support. Unit 5, use the highest authority of the Beijing Station's Earth Protection Net to intercept all frequencies entering No. 23 Signal Station. Unit 6, break open the door of the signal station! The entire process is expected to take about five minutes. Unit 4 - from now on, listen to my orders and hold them off." Yang Ning's voice sounded somewhat out of breath.

The pursuers behind them had extremely strong mobility. The opposing commander once again demonstrated his outstanding military talent. The various forces that had originally been fighting in a mess quickly merged into one force under Yang Ning's highly destructive disruption, using the overwhelming advantage of numbers to surround them. After all, the number of mechs was limited, and they quickly lost the advantage of the formation after dispersing.

"Authority has been granted, countdown begins now, interception expected to be completed within five minutes."

"Shielding command is being verified."

Amidst a sea of gunfire, Fu Luo, who was responsible for bringing up the rear, bore the brunt of it. For a few seconds, she lost her composure and almost felt like she couldn't find her bearings... until Yang Ning's voice rang in her ear. "You must hold out for five minutes."

From the moment they decided to go to No. 23 Signal Station in western Beijing, Yang Ning had always been saying "we must do this" and "we must do that". He seemed to never consider what would happen if they failed, only seeing the goal, with a kind of almost desperate madness.

Fu Luo, who had not yet gone crazy, was trapped in the center of the gunfire, jumping up and down to avoid attacks with her half-baked, clumsy operating skills, her mind filled with one question - Yesterday I was still a great new soldier defending my home and country, how did I become a terrorist today?!