Volume 10: Ancient Battleship Chapter 499: The Lost Supply Convoy
"What?!" Lieutenant General Maginot shouted in disbelief. He first stared at the soldier who reported the news with wide eyes for a few seconds, then suddenly turned around and opened the holographic projection map that he had just turned off not long ago.
The dozen or so blue dots that were approaching the base in the northeast direction just now seemed to have never existed - if Maginot had not been keeping an eye on this supply convoy for a whole morning, he would have thought he was hallucinating.
That was more than a dozen truckloads of supplies that the base urgently needed! They also included fresh pork and vegetables that he could only eat once a week. He was really tired of eating this canned synthetic meat that had been stored for who knows how many years... Of course, for "Lieutenant General Maginot, who claimed to love his soldiers like his own sons", this personal material enjoyment was only secondary. What was more important was the things on the remaining ten or so truckloads. That was a week's ration for all the soldiers stationed at the Mukach base!
There is no food synthesis factory in the Mukah base, only a very small hydroponic farm that can only grow bean sprouts and white radishes. If this truck of supplies cannot be delivered to the base, it means that for the next period of time, more than 10,000 people in the base will have to rely on emergency prepared dry food to survive.
Maginot had just checked the inventory list in the morning. There were about two thousand cans of emergency dry food and more than five thousand bags of compressed biscuits... It sounded like a lot of things, but after being distributed among more than ten thousand mouths, it could only last for two days at most.
If we can’t find supplies within two days, or if we don’t get support from the Ark, the base will run out of food!
"Damn it... Was the previous military chief an idiot? A base of this size only has two days of food in stock... Even I, who came from a garrison, know that front-line bases must have at least half a month's worth of emergency rations in reserve... Could such a huge gap in supplies have been embezzled by that bastard?" The moment he saw the list, Maginot thought that he must report to his superiors that Mukach's previous military chief was suspected of corruption, but before he could even start writing the report, the base's supply crisis suddenly fell upon him.
"Hurry up and send out the mobile reconnaissance company to search for the missing convoy! The supplies must be recovered!" Maginot ordered.
However, the soldier did not immediately turn around and pass on his order, but instead anxiously hinted something to Lieutenant General Maginot with his eyes.
"Why are you looking at me? Go and pass the message quickly! If we can't find the supplies, everyone will starve in two days!" Maginot glanced at the other party's armband, and then he noticed that this guy in combat uniform and helmet was not an ordinary soldier, but an officer with the rank of major.
However, Lieutenant General Maginot had just arrived and had not yet recognized the names of all the officers under his command . He could not call out the name of the major for a while. He only remembered that this guy seemed to be the battalion commander of a reinforced battalion of the combat unit.
Seeing that Maginot was completely unaware of the seriousness of the problem, the major took a deep breath and said in a deep voice: "General! The location where the convoy signal disappeared is only 30 kilometers away from the base... The road conditions in this area are very stable. It is not the migration season yet, so there are very few large-scale indigenous creatures appearing... There is only one possibility for the disappearance of the convoy. They were attacked by a heretical sect! And the number of enemies is definitely not small!"
He took a breath and continued, "A small group of exiles or followers of a heretical sect would not dare to attack our convoy so close to the base, because as long as the convoy signal disappears, they will not be able to run far in such an open plain area before being caught up by the troops sent by the base... I think this may be a premeditated attack, and the target of the attack is not the supply convoy, but here!"
"You mean, they are heading for the Mukach base? The convoy was attacked and they just happened to run into it?" Maginot was stunned and asked hurriedly - he had been sitting in a comfortable position for too long, and his mindset had not been switched for a while. His first reaction to the disappearance of the convoy was the loss of supplies... But this major was different. He had been in the Mukach base for four years and was a real elite veteran on the front line.
There is a saying in several other units of the Field Corps to describe the soldiers stationed at the "Mukakh" military base: this group of people never take off their coats and shoes when they go to bed at night, they must hold their guns in their arms, the bullets must be loaded, and the suicide notes have been written long ago and stored in the mailbox - although there is inevitably some exaggeration, the high vigilance of these soldiers can be seen from this sentence.
"Yes! It is not enough to just send out the mobile reconnaissance company. General, please give the order for the entire base to enter the first level combat readiness status immediately! Recall all combat units , and at the same time request support from the Ark and the fleet closest to here!"
"This..." Maginot wanted to say "this is too much of a fuss". According to the intelligence he got, the large forces of the heretic sect should have been sent to the Molten Mine District. It is impossible for them to gather a group of forces to attack the Mukach Base at this time. But he changed his mind and thought, what if the heretic sect really divided its forces to act? Or maybe the invasion of the Molten Mine District was just a feint, and the real target was the Mukach Base where he was stationed?
It is always a good idea to be cautious. As the saying goes, it is better to be safe than sorry. Maginot would rather be laughed at as a coward by his colleagues than lose his life because of his own carelessness.
"Just do as you say!" Maginot said. "By the way, don't we have an outpost outside the base? Let the outpost send a few drones to the place where the convoy disappeared to see what's going on."
"General... not only has the convoy's signal disappeared, but the four outposts in that direction have also all lost contact." The major glanced down at the personal terminal strapped to the inside of his wrist and said solemnly.
"Four outposts...all lost contact? I remember the one closest to the base was less than 20 kilometers away, right?" Maginot frowned. "From this distance, it can be seen from the observation tower of the base. The sentry on duty at the top of the tower didn't see anything?"
"The sentry just reported ten seconds ago and did not observe any abnormalities."
"What the hell, this is really a ghost—" Maginot tugged at his collar in annoyance, "There's nothing unusual, how could the outpost lose contact? Is it electromagnetic interference?"
"No electromagnetic interference was detected either..." the major replied, "The four outposts lost contact one after another based on their distance, with an interval of less than three seconds... Something is approaching the base quickly!"
