Chapter 1411: Race Against Time
A banquet was held on USS Obama.
Ladies in evening gowns and gentlemen in tailcoats danced on the dance floor. The politicians and entrepreneurs who stood beside the long banquet table toasted and talked eagerly. Among them were shipowners, merchants, members of Congress, and politicians in government agencies.
This kind of banquet was very common on USS Obama, as if something worth celebrating happened every few days. Even if most of the poor people on the cargo ships were struggling to get by, this did not stop them from squeezing out some supplies to enjoy life.
“…Have you heard of Senator Bansar’s proposal? He actually proposed to the Congress to close the ranch on USS Lahaina and set free the thousand double-headed brahman cows! Jesus Christ. I have never heard of such a ridiculous proposal!”
“Anyone can join our Congress now. We must tighten the threshold for those that want to become part of the Congress.”
“But we cannot ignore the opinions of the thousand Indian-Americans. If they strike and protest, it will give us headaches.”
“Lost? What a joke, if USN used all its strength, it is as easy to pinch an ant to death as it is easy to pinch them!”
“I heard that the USN Marine Corps scrapped more than 500 NS-90 robots. Our fighters succeeded, but after all, we were still one step too slow.”
“They won’t be so lucky every time, let us toast the future of America!”
“Haha, cheers!”
“…”
Zhou Guoping let out a helpless sigh when he saw the charcoal-grilled double-headed brahman beef on the plates, the mutant cod burger with mud crab sauce, and the goblet full of quantum champagne. He felt like he had no appetite.
If the banquet was compared to NAC standards, this banquet was probably of the lowest class. Not to mention anything else, at least at NAC banquets, canned food was never placed in the most conspicuous position on the table as if it were a treasure, and people had to show identification when they received the meal.
Of course, they were not to blame. After all, for these survivors who drifted on the sea and had no homes, canned food was really a luxury.
He missed his days in the Sixth Street very much now.
At least from what he ate, it was not NAC’s tradition to treat its own poorly.
When he arrived on USS Obama, the Americans not only did not abuse him but regarded him as an interesting character…or rather, a rare animal. President Sean specifically allowed him to attend the banquet on the aircraft carrier as the “NAC Governor” and even allowed him to live on the aircraft carrier as a state guest.
“…We are a multicultural country. As long as you are willing to accept our ideas, you are one of us. The abuse of prisoners of war is done by barbarians, not by us.” Those were President Sean’s words. While he sounded righteous, it was completely bullsh*t in Zhou Guoping’s ears.
From the time he got on the ship, he had not seen his compatriots.
Obviously, those three thousand colonists were not sent to the USN fleet at all. As for where they were sent, he had gained some insights.
Although this group of Americans moved factories, farms, and even farmland to the deck of the cargo ships, this fleet was not all of the United States. After all, there were no recyclable waste products onboard and no resources for mining.
The source of supplies for the American fleet mainly relied on the concentration camp in Panama, where criminals, slaves, and captives captured from the South American survivor settlements were held, and they were forced to do the most basic waste collection, mining, and resource recovery.
Zhou Guoping was certain that the 3,000 colonists were sent there, and even the more than 30,000 slaves he purchased were also likely sent there… even if most of those slaves were native to North America.
At this moment, he heard a familiar and annoying voice beside him. A man in a suit and leather shoes walked towards him with a goblet and a bright smile.
“Haha, dear Mr. Zhou Guoping, how have you been recently? Are you used to life on the boat?”
When he saw this face, Governor Zhou’s previously pleasant mood was no longer pleasant.
The man in front of him was no one else than the President of the United States of America at Sea, as well as Captain of the USS Obama, Sean Luke.
Although USN’s Marines were defeated by NAC some time ago, at this moment, there was not the slightest annoyance or frustration on his face. Instead, he smiled brightly, separated by two tables, and raised his goblet.
As a president, he had to show sufficient demeanor in front of prisoners in order to win the favor of the “domestic” neutrals.
Although Zhou Guoping could feel from far away that Mr. President looked down on him from the bottom of his heart.
“Thank you for your thoughtfulness.” Out of helplessness, he patiently raised his goblet and said stiffly, “I’m fine. Except for occasional seasickness, everything else is fine.”
“Really?” Sean laughed, “I hope you can enjoy this banquet for the upcoming victory.”
“Then I have to have a few good drinks.” Zhou Guoping grinned and said sarcastically.
Perhaps Mr. President did not hear the sarcasm in Zhou Gouping’s words, or perhaps he did not mind, he had already turned to the guests who surrounded him and began to converse with them.
Zhou Guoping, who was forgotten in the corner, put down his goblet, walked outside the cabin, leaned against the guardrail, and lit a low-quality cigarette.
The soldier standing outside on duty turned his body slightly and stared at him unabashedly.
Without paying attention to that vigilant sight, Zhou Guoping planned to just take a breather before he returned. He could learn some news from those people’s conversations.
But at this moment, the half-smoked cigarette fell into the sea.
Zhou Guoping pretended the cigarette was blown away by the sea breeze, lowered his head to conceal the ecstasy on his face. The soldier who watched him found nothing unusual, and he just stood motionlessly on duty.
Just now, an electric current mixed with static noise suddenly appeared in his mind.
“This is Parrot… Is it Mr. Governor?”
…
A week had passed since AS Order arrived on the West Coast, and three days had passed since a team of power armors set off for the desert.
During this week, small USN fighters broke into the colony’s radar detection area almost every day, fired a long-range air-to-air missile at a distance aimed at AS Order, and then turned around before they approached the colony’s air defense fire range.
This kind of harassment was meaningless. Conventional air-to-air missiles at such a long-distance could be blasted down even with the airship’s built-in laser defense weapons. It was not even necessary to use ground-based air defense weapons.
“Their number of F-79s should be very limited.” Jiang Chen put down the binoculars, squinted his eyes, and looked in the direction the flight of fighters left in.”
As long as they could breakthrough the ground-based air defense and exchange a few fights with the enemy “aircraft carrier”, the exchange would be well worth the trade. However, these fighters were afraid to enter NAC’s firepower coverage. Other than the daily trip to check the West Coast, they did not make any other moves.
Obviously, the five lost fighters had already caused them a lot of pain.
“What are they waiting for?” Zheng Shanhe frowned.
“A gust of wind,” Jiang Chen smiled after a moment’s pause, and then said, “Or a hurricane, a tornado, or a lightning storm.”
Slightly confused by the analogy, Zheng Shanhe didn’t react at first. It took two seconds for him to turn to Jiang Chen with a look of shock.
“You, you mean!”
“That’s right.” Jiang Chen nodded, and his slightly narrowed eyes gleamed with a dangerous ray, “Now the National Guard and Minuteman are already on our side, and the troops are stationed in the camp next to the fortress. If USN’s fighters came once every day, then there must have discovered this information.”
For USN, the survivors on the West Coast had decided to stand on their opposing side. They had become obstacles to their plan to revive the United States.
Therefore, since they had found the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center first, it was obviously a more convenient choice to directly use the weather weapon. The only plausible explanation as to why USN had not done so was because either activating the weather weapon would take a considerable amount of time, or summoning a large-scale natural disaster would require certain conditions.
Now he could only pray that the team of power armors sent to the Nevada Desert could snatch the West Coast Meteorological Monitoring Center from USN before USN launched a weather strike…