Chapter 70: On the Train

Big Black slowly came to halt. Zhang Wei and his team alighted from the front of the vehicle.

Qi Bai Jia saluted and introduced himself. “I am Qi Bai Jia, the staff officer who will be leading this mission.”

“Greetings. Happy to be working with you.” Zhang Wei nodded. Then he turned his head and smiled at Ma Qing Yang heartily while giving Ma Qing Yang a big hug.

On the other side, Lin Yao’s eyes glittered upon seeing Di Su Su, his gaze tightly locked onto her. He waved his arm shyly. “Hello, Su Su Jie.”

“Little Lin Lin.” Di Su Su just ignored Lin Yao and walked past him toward Li Ya Lin while he was still mesmerized by her. She pinched Li Ya Lin’s cheeks. “Tsk tsk. You have grown prettier since the last time I saw you.”

“Screw off. We are not that close.” Li Ya Lin frowned and shoved Di Su Su’s annoying hand away.

Di Su Su was not bothered by it. She scanned around and asked curiously, “Where is your Mechanic? Where is he hiding?”

Li Ya Lin crossed her arms in front of her chest. She gave a cold look and refused to answer.

Zhang Wei answered, “He’s a little tired, so he is still sleeping on the truck.”

“This truck is....?”

Zhang Wei stood upright and said with a face full of pride, “Our logistical support vehicle.”

Jealousy filled Ma Qing Yang and Di Su Su’s teams. They gave their team leaders a bitter look.

“We want our own logistical support vehicle, too.”

Qi Bai Jia clapped his hand. “Okay. Time is running out. Let’s move out.”

A military-use train was parked at the station. Instead of transporting the items using airplanes or regular cars, forty well-trained field personnel are loading boxes of firearms and ammunition onto the train.

Since the major expressways were destroyed, the Six Nations had focused on the development of railway to connect various destinations. Military-use trains ran designated military railways, which made them faster than civilian trains. Three days was all that was required for the train to reach its destination.

The first five carriages comprised of the driving cabin, two bedrooms, the restaurant, and firearm storage respectively. The last few carriages were open air – specially made for carrying other vehicles. Li Ya Lin drove Big Black up onto the carriage. The field personnel locked it in place tightly and covered the truck with a dust-sheet.

Once everyone had boarded the train, it moved off. The train radiated under the fierce sunlight and drove into the dangerous and treacherous forested fields.

....

Han Xiao woke up soon after he felt the vibration of the train.

The ceiling of the carriage was installed with lamps that illuminated the room under a soft white light. The carriage was filled with lifeless, ice-cold machines and mechanical weapons, but they actually gave him a sense of security.

Han Xiao rubbed his eyes forcefully before he got his full concentration back. He opened the carriage door only to realize that he was on a high-speed train that was already on the move. The wild wind gushed toward his face, blowing his messy hair all around. The floor was vibrating non-stop and the riotous sound of the train movement rushed into his ears. The train moved smoothly along the rail toward their destination.

A galaxy of stars illuminated the dark sky.

Mountains could be seen on the distant horizon.

Have I slept for the entire day? For a while, Han Xiao was slightly startled. He then put on his Facial Simulator and adjusted his face to that of a regular man from his memory. After which, he placed a mask over the Facial Simulator. He had always been this careful. Afterwards, he followed the trail of light and entered the carriage from the front.

The sound from the wind disappeared the moment he entered the carriage; noisy chatter filled his ears instead. He felt as if he had just transmigrated from the stone age to a modern civilization.

As soon as Han Xiao walked in, everyone stopped talking. Every pair of eyes was fixated on Han Xiao. They scanned him with curiosity.

Di Su Su was the first person to stand up. She moved her beautiful waist and moved seductively toward Han Xiao.

“So, you are Han Xiao?” she asked curiously.

“I think you’ve got the wrong person,” Han Xiao replied nonchalantly. Han Xiao knew that he would lose a lot of face if he answered all the questions directed at him truthfully.

Everyone’s face stiffened. What a blatant lie! Everyone was here in the cabin. Who else could he be‽

Li Ya Lin was instantly delighted as she saw the scheming Di Su Su getting rejected. She waved at Han Xiao. “Xiao Ge, come here and sit.”

Han Xiao nodded and moved beside Zhang Wei and the others. Li Ya Lin whispered to Han Xiao, “Great job! You just embarrassed that scheming Di Su Su.”

“Scheming?” Han Xiao was surprised by her description.

“That’s right. Di Su Su is a scheming, cunning, and sly snake!” Li Ya Lin said with a mouth full of detest.

Han Xiao squinted. “Are you describing yourself?”

Lin Yao could not agree more. However, he dared not add anything for fear being beaten up by Li Ya Lin. He secretly looked at Han Xiao with respect. That’s my Xiao Ge—full of balls—a courageous man who never filters his words. When Di Su Su saw Li Ya Lin and Han Xiao’s intimate gestures, her face turned black. Traces of angered flashed in her eyes.

On the other side, Ma Qing Yang extended his hand and smiled. “Hey, brother. Nice to meet you. I’m Ma Qing Yang.”

Han Xiao shook his hand as he held back the enraged Lin Ya Lin, unflustered. “Technically, we never met.”

Ma Qing Yang was dumbfounded. He surveyed around Han Xiao’s mask, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. “Oh. You are right.”

Qi Bai Jia clapped his hand. “Since everyone is here, I will now explain the details of this mission. Field personnel please take your leave.”

Field personnel knew that this was the rule, so they left this carriage without hesitation. The place immediately quieted, as only the three covert ops teams and Qi Bai Jia were left inside.

“This is a joint mission between Hesla’s Intelligence Department and us. Hesla’s troops are stationed at the border, and they could move out at any moment. Our job here is to infiltrate the enemy base to gather information about their defenses so that we can provide the troops with intelligence support.

“Hesla has sent us a map of the Dark Crow Valley. This place is easy to hold but hard to attack, and with deep forests, we will not be able to locate the coordinates of the base with our satellites. We have zero information about their troop number and location. We can only attack from land.”

Everyone was very serious when it came to their mission. Di Su Su scratched her forehead and frowned. “This sounds like a heavily-guarded best. Is it possible for Hesla’s troops to storm the base on the ground?”

“They refused.” Qi Bai Jia shook his head.

Everyone understood the reason; as long as Hesla could take down the enemy with two thirds of their effort, they would never deploy their full strength. Furthermore, when there was too little information about enemy’s power and location, Hesla would not allow its troops to go in prematurely for fear of suffering too many casualties. The Covert Ops department would be brought in to do the dirty work like such an infiltration.

Li Ya Lin grumbled, “Then where is the infiltrating point?”

Qi Bai Jia pointed at a spot on the map. “On the west side of the valley, there is a large town called Crow’s Forest. The fact that they have the courage to build a town near a base of the Germinal Organization suggests that the two parties are colluding. Therefore, there must be a few scouts from the valley base stationed in the town. This is our opportunity to obtain crucial intelligence.

“And according to intelligence from the higher ups, there are three noteworthy enemies from the Dark Crow Valley base.”

Qi Bai Jia gave out a folder of information sheets to everyone. As everyone was reading through the sheets, he summarized the gist of the information. “Pan Kuang—head of the base, 35 years-old, Asian, E+ Pugilist—is one of the Germinal Organization’s executive officers. His weapon is a blade, nicknamed Blade-soul. His last recorded feat was three years ago, when he defeated twelve Theseus agents at the border alone. Four of them were superhumans.”

The page showed an emotionless man. He looked like any ordinary man but gave off an extremely fierce vibe.

“Ji Jie, deputy head, male, 29 years-old, mixed Asian and Caucasian, limited information. We only know that he seems to be a relative of the leader of the Wind Eye Organization, Ji Nuo.

“Dormund, captain of the security force, 43, from Raylen. He specializes in different firearms, and he is an extremely elite special agent. He used to lead a whole Night Owl squad.”

Doubt filled Ma Qing Yang’s face. “I thought we did not have much information regarding the internal situation of the base? Where did all this detailed information come from?”

Everyone was wondering the same thing.

Qi Bai Jia shook his head. “Not sure. The higher ups said it was classified.”

Everybody stopped their questioning.

Han Xiao pricked up his ears slightly. The source of this intel is sitting right beside you guys. Qi Bai Jia added more pointers for everyone to take note. Suddenly, his tone changed. “For this combined exercise, Hesla will be sending teams of agents from the intelligence department. They will move with us when we meet at the rendezvous point.”

Zhang Wei’s expression became unnatural, and he questioned, “Agents from two countries working on this mission together?”

Qi Bai Jia was feeling embarrassed and coughed. “Yes.”

That was just courting trouble!

Hesla was unsatisfied with the intel from Stardragon. Also, they didn’t want to expend much of their own force, so they requested that Division 13 deploy manpower for this mission.

The agents looked at one another with unease. The relationship between the two countries were rather stale. The agents even seemed hostile toward one another. It seemed like the mission would turn out to be a flop.

None of this intel was useful for Han Xiao. He yawned and looked out of the window. He squinted after he caught sight of something. He immediately interrupted the discussion and shouted, “We are under attack by beasts!”

Everyone was stunned and could not react. The train vibrated violently, causing the agent to almost fall. At the same time, there was a loud and horrible cry from the field personnel in the back carriage.