NOVEL WEB Chapter 93: Carribean Base (4)
Ahead, the first wave of anti-aircraft missiles approached. "Old rules," Zack said with a smirk. His thrusters flared as he executed a sudden, sharp maneuver, baiting the missiles into following his feint. At the last second, he veered off sharply, leaving the missiles to detonate harmlessly in his wake.
As Zack broke through the outer defense network, his HUD lit up with dozens of locking indicators. Every anti-aircraft vehicle, cannon, and missile launcher within range was marked as a target—seventy-one in total.
"Fire!" Zack commanded. Missile pods on his shoulders opened, unleashing a storm of micro-guided missiles. Each missile, no bigger than a pencil, had a designated target. They streaked through the air like a deadly swarm, leaving bright, curved trails in their wake.
"Intercept them, quickly!" someone shouted desperately from within the Caribbean base. Soldiers scrambled to respond, but their efforts were futile. The micro-missiles were too small and too fast to intercept effectively.
Explosions erupted across the base as the missiles found their marks, obliterating anti-aircraft vehicles, gun emplacements, and missile launchers. Secondary detonations followed as stored ammunition ignited, amplifying the destruction. "Still got tanks, huh?" Zack muttered, noticing several armored vehicles stationed near the base's high walls.
"His speed is slowing down!" a tank gunner shouted nervously. "We might be able to hit him!" The tank's gun barrel began to rise, and soldiers in the armored vehicle scrambled to open the protective cover, swiveling the vehicle-mounted Vulcan machine gun toward the sky. But before they could act, they saw eight spiraling missiles hurtling toward them with terrifying momentum.
"Move! Hurry!" "Get out of here now!" The machine gunner on the armored vehicle and the tank observer shouted in panic.
It was already too late. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Eight spiraling ground-attack missiles slammed into their targets, triggering a devastating wave of explosions. The fiery blast engulfed the tanks and armored vehicles in an instant. When the flames finally subsided, nothing remained but twisted, burning husks of steel.
In a single strike, Zack had obliterated the most critical outer defense line of Caribbean base. The soldiers manning it suffered massive casualties, and entire sections of the high wall lay in ruins.
"This is what happens when you don't have air superiority..." Zack muttered coldly as he lowered his altitude to about a thousand meters, flying over the shattered defense line of Caribbean base without a hint of caution. Outside the base, there was no heavy weaponry left to pose a threat to him. The ordinary soldiers clutching rifles on the ground barely registered in his eyes.
"He's actually daring enough to come here himself? Launch a nuke! Now!" Inside the underground command room at the center of the base, Jock's enraged roar echoed off the walls.
"If he gets any lower, I'll handle him myself!" Navas, standing nearby and watching Zack's carefree flight on the screen, clenched his fists. A cruel glint flashed in his eyes. No one truly knew what his mutant ability was—not even his half-brother, Clint. All anyone understood was that it was tied to his deadly boxing skills.
"I've sent reinforcements," Kshatti said with grim determination, turning the screen to a moving truck in the survivor's living area.
Inside the truck sat hundred of people—all mutants. In a base housing tens of thousands of people, it wasn't unusual for some to be mutants, but these group were Caribbean base's trump cards. "They are Navas's chosen warriors. They'll crush him," Kshatti declared firmly.
But before his words could settle, the screen showed eight missiles spiraling toward the truck. "No!" "Is he insane?!" Kshatti's eyes widened in despair as the missiles descended. Despite his words, his real concern was for the mutants in the truck.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A string of explosions tore through the area. Dirt roads littered with trash, clusters of makeshift tents, and fragile wooden building were consumed in a massive inferno.
The truck on the dirt road? Obliterated.
The mutants army inside? They didn't even have time to make their move. Erased in an instant by Zack's overwhelming technological advantage. Without air defenses or anti-aircraft weaponry, Zack was untouchable. Flying freely over the base, he launched missiles at anything he deemed a threat. The air filled with cries—some desperate to put out fires, others scrambling to escape. A pair of caged Mutant beast screeched incessantly as they clung to the bars of their enclosure, their shrill cries mingling with the chaos of human despair.
"Only two anti-armor missiles left..." Zack glanced at the dwindling missile count on his HUD, his expression devoid of emotion. The sheer loss of life below didn't bother him in the slightest.
"Sir, new missiles launched," Ego's calm voice reported.
Zack looked ahead sharply. Sure enough, two massive intercontinental missiles were slowly rising from their silos, leaving trails of fire and smoke in their wake.
"They're launching them right in front of me? That's practically giving them away." Zack frowned. Intercontinental missiles needed time to accelerate to their ultimate speeds, often reaching Mach 20 or more. At launch, however, they were sluggish, barely reaching Mach 1. To Zack, they were nothing but slow-moving targets.
BOOM!
He broke through the sound barrier instantly, the shockwave of his flight echoing across the sky. In a flash, Zack positioned himself above the two rising missiles. "What is he planning?" Back in the command room, Jock's unease deepened. He clenched his fists tightly, watching Zack's every move on the screen.
His question was answered moments later. Hovering above the missiles, Zack's forearm armor shifted, revealing the last two anti-armor penetrating missiles in his Armory.
"Target locked," Ego confirmed.
"Fire." With Zack's command, the two missiles launched from their compartments. Though smaller than the intercontinental missiles, they quickly accelerated to supersonic speeds, racing toward their massive targets.
Intercontinental missiles had limited maneuverability during their launch phase, locked into a preset trajectory until they reached altitude. In seconds, the micro-missiles struck their targets.
Two fiery explosions lit up the sky, thousands of meters above the ground. The intercontinental missiles, destroyed mid-ascent, disintegrated into massive fireballs. The dazzling light in the sky burned like two extra suns had risen, illuminating the world below with an almost otherworldly glow. Everyone in Caribbean base—whether they were fighting the fires, escaping for their lives, or frozen in shock—looked up instinctively. The eerie silence of the light lasted for several seconds before it happened.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion ripped through the air, sending shockwaves across the ground. The earth trembled violently as if struck by an invisible hammer, and a gale that felt like a raging storm blew through the base, carrying chaos in its wake. The still-burning fires flared up as the wind fed them, spreading flames to areas that had previously been untouched. What had been isolated blazes merged into an unstoppable sea of fire, consuming everything in its path.
This wasn't even the full power of the missile—it was just the explosion of its fuel. The nuclear warheads it carried had either been destroyed in the blast or dropped harmlessly from the sky. Unlike conventional bombs, nuclear weapons have layers of safeguards, making accidental detonation nearly impossible.