Metal crack

Second Bombardment

The probe equipment was fully activated, and electromagnetic waves of various frequencies penetrated the dust-covered Mars, bringing surface imagery back to the spaceship.

Ou and Xu were stunned to see that although the former alien base site had become a large pit, a new alien base had appeared at its edge. Various unexpectedly shaped alien buildings stood like a forest, with large architectural structures moving back and forth between them.

Ou Zhanpeng's eyes widened. "The alien species' base construction capabilities are impressive. How long has it been, and they've already built such a large base?"

There was a four-month gap between the alien species' landing and the Expeditionary Force's bombing. It seemed the alien species had deliberately slowed down and played games during that time. Only when the great storm completely covered Mars did they bring out their ultimate trump cards, hiding beneath the dust and wreaking havoc?

Not only that, but subsequent scans indicated that new bases had also appeared near the other two former base sites.

It was clear that the Expeditionary Force's bombing was not as successful as it appeared. The current alien bases were undoubtedly rebuilt, relying on the former bases as anchors.

In addition to the three major bases, the two also discovered over twenty small bases in various regions of Mars, creating a widespread presence.

Ou Zhanpeng's head immediately began to ache.

When the enemy was concentrated in the three major bases, they couldn't eliminate all the alien species. Now that they were scattered across different locations, the difficulty of annihilating the enemy would increase by at least an order of magnitude.

"Report to base," Ou Zhanpeng said.

Those unfamiliar with the military might think that there was nothing to discuss and that immediate bombing was the only option.

However, those who understood the military knew that the military required constant requests and reports. Anything unknown, uncertain, or even clearly understood but not urgent, had to be reported to superiors first, and action could only be taken after receiving precise orders.

Of course, in urgent situations, flexibility was allowed, and decisions could be made independently, but the situation had to be reported immediately afterward.

This served as both a constraint on the combat units and an aid for the commanders to maintain a comprehensive grasp of the battle situation.

This was precisely the case here. Although the alien bases had already taken considerable shape, bombing was not an immediate pressing need. Therefore, the situation had to be reported upward first.

About half an hour later, the spaceship received a reply from the base: "Resolutely strike the enemy's bases. Even if they cannot be destroyed, make every effort to slow down the enemy's construction speed."

Since the order had been received, there was nothing more to say. Ou Zhanpeng immediately activated the weapon modules, entered the target information, and prepared to launch missiles.

However, an accident occurred at this moment. The launch signal had been sent, but the weapon modules on Phobos showed no reaction whatsoever.

Ou Zhanpeng's heart tightened. He immediately resent the command, but there was still no change.

Something was wrong, they had been too careless!

It was impossible for both weapon modules to malfunction simultaneously. It must have been the alien species hidden on the satellite that had sabotaged them!

But just as the two were seething with indignation, a dazzling, intense light suddenly erupted from the surface of Phobos.

Amidst an indescribably powerful explosion, Phobos was torn apart, turning into a scattering of debris.

Ou and Xu's anger immediately turned to astonishment. After a while, Xu Qing asked in disbelief, "What on earth happened?"

Never assume that a nuclear bomb is easy to detonate. A qualified nuclear bomb has at least seven safety mechanisms, and as long as any one of them is still functioning, the warhead will not experience an accident.

American nuclear bombs have experienced at least thirty "dud" incidents, some of which even resulted in the leakage of nuclear material, but apart from a certain island, these "big mushrooms" have never detonated outside test sites.

Ou Zhanpeng was not an expert in nuclear weapons and did not understand how the various safety mechanisms worked, but he knew that the possibility of a nuclear bomb detonating on its own was almost zero.

Furthermore, the detonation of a nuclear bomb had no direct connection to the spaceship's launch command.

Thinking this, a thought suddenly flashed through Ou Zhanpeng's mind: could it be that the alien species had dismantled the missile, and were in the process of dismantling the warhead, and coincidentally received the launch signal at that moment... No, no, it should be that the alien species accidentally detonated it while dismantling the nuclear bomb!

Even if ordinary people were given all the tools, they wouldn't know how to dismantle a nuclear bomb.

However, the alien species themselves possessed extremely high technological capabilities, so they shouldn't have encountered too much difficulty during the dismantling process. The result was that after removing all the safety measures, they accidentally detonated the nuclear bomb.

It was even possible that the Brain Fish, for their own safety or other reasons, assigned the dismantling task to the Gigantic Species, and the clumsy Gigantic Species caused the accident.

Another possibility was that the alien species did not understand the principle of nuclear bombs at all, and had piled too much nuclear material together, exceeding the critical mass.

Regardless of the reason, the accident had occurred. Both weapon modules were completely destroyed in the explosion, and the remaining missiles either detonated en masse or were completely damaged, rendering them useless.

Fortunately, there were two other weapon modules in orbit.

With the night growing longer, Ou Zhanpeng immediately issued a new command. He promptly received confirmation signals from the backup weapon modules, and then several missiles were launched one after another, igniting and heading towards Mars after leaving the modules.

With each missile detached, the weapon modules floating in orbit experienced a slight jolt, altering their original posture after a few launches. They had to activate their attitude control engines to maintain their position.

It took more than ten minutes, intermittently, to launch all missiles except for the anti-aircraft ones.

They formed a large missile cluster, charging towards Mars in a forward and backward manner. After a while, the missiles, having reached cruising speed, shut off their engines and continued to fly on inertia.

The missiles were much faster than fighter jets. In just twelve minutes, they had covered a distance of over nine thousand kilometers. Upon approaching Mars, they activated their engines for a secondary acceleration and split up towards their respective targets.

The dust covering Mars not only concealed the alien bases but also provided excellent protection for the missile cluster. The numerous missiles plunged into the atmosphere, diving down at high speed.

The speed of the missiles was no less than ten kilometers per second. Almost as soon as they entered the atmosphere, their warheads automatically split open, releasing the sub-munitions hidden within. Although they appeared to disperse randomly, they actually had specific targets.

Viewed from orbit, dozens of missiles descended upon Mars like shooting stars. After entering the atmosphere, they exploded in mid-air like fireworks. From a distance, it resembled a meteor shower affecting the entire planet.

Hundreds of meteor showers simultaneously plunged into the swirling dust. Ou Zhanpeng's heart tightened, and Xu Qing nervously grabbed Ou's arm.