CHAPTER 367: CHAPTER 16: AMERICAN HYPOCRITE

When the ’Holy Light’ scout team arrived at Farmville Town, Major Fleming from the ’Richmond Guard Team’ personally witnessed those descending Warthogs.

As a soldier, Fleming immediately realized the huge tactical value of the low-hovering, vertically descending Warthogs—it was more useful than any ’high-tech’ weapon at present.

With the post-apocalyptic population plummeting, weapons that require a system to be effective have lost their value.

For example, a supercarrier requires over two thousand crew members to operate and leave port, and another two thousand aviation personnel to have combat capability.

In addition, there is the indispensable supply from naval bases and satellite navigation, all of which require a large number of professionals.

Similarly, the F-35 stealth fighter jet or the Abrams tank is powerful, but also consumes a lot, and there’s simply no enemy that needs them to be destroyed.

Equipment is plenty, but manpower is scarce. As a result, simpler equipment is more practical now, and weapons need to emphasize cost-effectiveness.

Fleming hurriedly sought out people from the town to ask, "Where did you get these low-flying aircraft? They must be hard to find."

In response to this inquiry, townspeople shook their heads and sighed, "That isn’t our equipment; it’s owned by a force called ’Holy Light’ in the west.

They’re a group of Asians, specifically Chinese, led by a super-rich man named Victor, who supposedly made ample preparations before the virus outbreak.

Previously, several towns united to attack that group of Chinese but failed. It’s said that captured personnel were treated as slaves and suffered terribly."

Fleming was shocked by this. He was tasked with investigating the forces in Avoni Town—the good news was that the opposite side had indeed developed well with plenty of resources; the bad news was they were ruthless and difficult to deal with.

This time, he came with only one platoon, over twenty armed soldiers, equipped mainly with two military armored vehicles, which was overwhelming force against smaller forces.

But if the opponent was strong enough, even if equipped with a few bomb-carrying drones...

Townspeople specially warned, "The ’Holy Light’s aerial power is strong; their Warthogs have been modified, often flying around with machine guns or optical pods.

Our town does have a ’Beechcraft’ that can fly, but due to the lack of fuel, its operational efficiency is very low. It can’t compare to their electric aircraft.

’Holy Light’ also has many small drones, numbering at least hundreds, even thousands. After all, Victor was once a millionaire, so buying up a ton of drones makes sense."

At this, townspeople sighed and said, "We all know your ’Richmond Guard Team’ inherited a large amount of military equipment and is very powerful.

But what are you forcing us to do? If you’re capable, go challenge ’Holy Light’ and see if you have more armored vehicles than they have drones."

This statement made Major Fleming’s face darken. He was well aware that the true strength of his three thousand men was just a ’paper tiger’, with equipment that couldn’t be utilized.

For example, for this operation, the platoon he brought was driving two RG-33 armored vehicles, which are high-displacement military vehicles with extremely high fuel consumption. Just driving out burns hundreds of liters of fuel.

The ’Richmond Guard Team’ controlled several military supply warehouses with considerable fuel storage, yet found their equipment’s ’gas guzzlers’ difficult to maintain.

If possible, Fleming also wanted to switch to smaller displacement vehicles, which save fuel but have poor protection. In this ’era of’ brave men everywhere, nobody wants to be blown up halfway.

But when facing drones, even large displacement, heavy armor, or even tanks are blind—Russian-Ukrainian war has shown that armored vehicles alone are vulnerable to aerial threats.

Fleming watched the continuous takeoffs and landings of the Warthogs, only one coming at a time, with two others circling the skies as a warning to prevent any militia from Farmville Town from acting out impulsively; they all behaved obediently.

"If only this equipment were ours."

Townspeople glanced sidelong and said provocatively, "Go ahead and seize it, the ’Holy Light’ group is just a hundred kilometers west, take your armored vehicles and charge over.

Those damned yellow-skinned monkeys came here also wanting to take a share of power from ’Xihu’ Hydropower Station. If you kill them all, everything will be yours."

Provoked, Fleming glared fiercely, angrily saying, "How do you know we can’t win? We are a military force, elite, destined to rule all of Virginia.

Even without relying on ground forces, we have enough planes and artillery to take down a bunch of yellow-skinned monkeys; it’s not at all difficult."

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At this moment, Marco was negotiating with Aik, the mayor of Farmville, attempting to reach an agreement on ’power exchange for materials’.

However, once they sat down to negotiate, the mayor changed his demeanor, angrily demanding:

"You want power, no problem. But you must respect human rights, release all captured white slaves, and ensure you never again commit such appalling crimes against humanity."

Marco listened and chuckled, "Don’t think you can manipulate us with words. Those white slaves were captured because they attacked us; if they dare make a move against us, they must bear the consequences.

What can’t be obtained on the battlefield can’t be expected to be won on the negotiating table. We’re not begging you for power, nor will we agree to any of your preconditions."

The mayor was even angrier, suddenly turning to Kongges beside Marco, angrily reprimanding, "This is the United States, you must abide by our rules. How can you practice slavery?"