<h4>Chapter 1520: Falling From the Sky</h4>


    “An unknown source was found on Ceres.”


    “What do you think it could be?”


    “... I don’t know.”


    Themander frowned. He controlled the holographic image on the table and slightly narrowed his eyes.


    Suddenly, he raised his right hand and slowly pushed it toward the holographic image, pushing a starship towards Ceres.


    “... We’ll go there and see!”


    A cruiser was separated from the fleet and moved closer in the direction of Ceres.


    At the same time, all of the magazines located in the belly of the ship opened. The defensive machine guns were standing by, ready to pour fierce firepower towards suspected or potential threats.


    “Gusu is 120 kilometers away from Ceres... It has reached the closest possible distance. No abnormalities have been found.”


    “Send out the drones!”


    “Roger that.”


    Two silver-white bright spots wereunched from the belly of the Gusu cruiser, dragging a plume of smoke behind. When they reached within one kilometer of Ceres, the drones were released from the sides of the missiles like locusts.


    Unlike ship-based drones on aircraft carriers, this missileunched drone was a special ground-based drone, which was usually used to perform intrusive attacks on space stations and other space facilities to reduce the offensive resistance ofnding forces.


    As the drones got closer and closer to the ground, themander couldn’t help but frown.


    However, something suddenly happened.


    An electromaic shell suddenly ejected from the surface of Ceres, forming a dense firepower.


    Twenty drones were torn into pieces in an instant, turning into space junk.


    The faces of everyone on the ship were unanimous.


    “... How could there be such a strong firepower on Ceres?”


    “Could it be the army of another country?”


    “Impossible... The deployment of heavy weapons on the asteroid belt must be carried out under the framework of the United Nations, and the location must be disclosed and marked; otherwise, it will be regarded as pirate activities.”


    “Is there any point in deploying so many arms in such a ce? It’s not like Ceres is in a strategic location.”


    “Maybe to protect something that’s hidden inside.”


    Themander ordered in a decisive tone, “Let Gusu prepare to cooperate with the third orbit airborne brigade tounch a raid!”


    “Yes, sir!”


    ...


    Although they didn’t know which force the armed forces entrenched on Ceres belonged to, in terms of thebat power it demonstrated, it was obviously not enough to send ground forces with the fire support of a cruiser.


    In order to ensure a foolproof operation, the Pan-Asian First Fleet sent a Type 05 ground attack ship from the Lagrange Space Base.


    This starship was not designed for attacking a space station. It was a ship designed for ground operations.


    Its terrifying ammunition capacity allowed it to produce a strategic strike capabilityparable to 200 small nuclear warheads. It was precisely because of this that the ship had been widely criticized by the internationalmunity since it wasunched.


    Its strength was beyond doubt.


    On the transport ship of the Third Orbital Airborne Brigade, orbital paratroopers dressed in mechanical exoskeletons boarded the heavynding craft and were undergoing final inspections of their weapons and equipment.


    Watching the missiles from the Type 05 ground attack ship outside the porthole, a soldier whopleted the equipment inspection whispered, “An uninhabited asteroid, a point defense array deployed on the asteroid... I feel like I am living in a science fiction movie.”


    “It’s more like a copy of the Cn Empire... Who are we fighting with? I still don’t have a clue.”


    “I don’t know... Apparently, it’s a group of space pirates, but, so far, we have not seen anyone.”


    “Do you think... it’s aliens? We are actually facing an alien outpost—”


    “Quiet, keep your mouth shut!”


    After Li Gaoliang scolded his subordinates, he walked into the heavynding craft with a serious expression, nced around at the soldiers, and continued, “After 10 minutes, thending operation will begin. Everyone will act ording to the n. The enemy’s firepower is very fierce. If you want toe back alive, remember to lower your head and move quickly!


    “Do you understand?!”


    They answered Li Gaoliang in a uniform fashion.


    “Yes, sir!”


    Li Gaoliang nodded in satisfaction, waved his hand, and said, “Let’s go!”


    ...


    After the opening shelling of the first and second rounds ended, ayer of bumpy bullet marks was printed on the surface of Ceres.


    The defensive facilities painted with lunar gray camouge werepletely destroyed; countless defensive arrays were also destroyed.


    After the strategic strike bombing ended, the first wave of thending craft had begun airdrops.


    As a long shuttle-like spacecraft hit the surface of the, automated all-terrain attack vehicles and suspended aerodynamic drones rushed out of thending craft and went towards the base in the valley.


    As expected by themand tower of the First Fleet, the enemy’s defense was more than just the opening defense arrays. Pneumatic drones and four-legged robots wereunched from the base.


    The sparks fired by the guns dotted the surface of the asteroid with a brilliant starlight. Behind every orange-yellow sh, there was a corresponding demise of a certain intelligent life.


    Standing on the bridge and staring at the battle, themander suddenly spoke.


    “When was thest time such arge-scale battle happened?”


    Yang Wu: “About half a century ago.”


    “Half a century ago...” Themander sighed softly and said, “That’s how long the peace hassted.”


    At the same time, on the third-orbit airborne transport ship, two long shuttle-type heavynding crafts slowly separated from the ship’s belly.


    As the sma engine ignited, the two heavynding craft fell towards the ground of the asteroid.


    The resistance on the ground had almost copsed, and the remaining smart devices had begun to gather towards the fortress of the enemy’s defense center.


    There was a valley, so the terrain was easy to defend and difficult to attack. Even though the Type 05 ground attack ship had carried out a round of covering attacks on it, a small amount of resistance still existed inside the fortress.


    However, for the elite of Pan-Asian Cooperation, the Third Orbital Airborne Brigade, thisst line of defense was nothing.


    As the two heavynding crafts went straight into the inside of the bunker, the metal jet device at the front sted outward, directly freezing through the shell of the fort.


    Under the cover of drones and all-terrain assault vehicles, soldiers wearing exoskeletons quickly prated into the fortress. Under themand of each team leader, they followed the course of action nned by the AI battlefield analysis system to attack the interior.


    When the two sides broke out in fierce conflict in the corridors, bursts of sparks lit up the dark spaces.


    The gunfire went on for two hours before it weakened sporadically.


    Li Gaoliang killed the robot soldier who fell on the ground with a pistol. He wiped a handful of dust off his helmet and visor, then looked towards the door in front of him.


    The battle was actually settled half an hour ago, but when the front line advanced from the outer corridor to this door, all the resistance forces in the entire base, whether it was the robots or the machine guns in the corridor, suddenlyunched a desperate counterattack against these orbital paratroopers.


    Li Gaoliang didn’t know what was behind the door, but he was very curious about what the secret was.


    With this curiosity in his heart, he issued an order through the all-terrain vehicle next to him, which drove forward to cut the entire door from the wall with a sma cutter.


    The heavy alloy door copsed. Under the escort of two orbital paratroopers, Li Gaoliang cautiously stepped into the door with a rifle, but when he saw everything inside the door, he waspletely stunned.


    “What is this... What?”


    It was a fan-shaped space like an ancient Roman theater. The spacious space formed a sharp contrast with the previously narrow battlefield. The stacked servers were lined up like des, pushing outward in the shape of a domino.


    Li Gaoliang’s muzzle slightly lowered as he looked up at the spectacle made of metal in front of him. His eyes were full of shock.


    Although he had not carefully counted how many servers there were, everything in front of him subverted his understanding ofputers.


    This was a quantumputer.


    As for itsputing power...


    It might be even more powerful than Pan-Asian Cooperation’s strongest supeputing center...