Chapter 15 Mobilization

On the road between the Federal capital and the T-119 defense line, more than a dozen cities, shelters, and combat camps were actively preparing troops to rush to the front line.

In a certain combat camp, a young couple was saying goodbye. The boy was wearing camouflage uniform, his face still showing traces of childishness.

He was only seventeen years old.

Since the world's changes, the age limit for joining the army has long been reduced from eighteen to sixteen.

If this were a time of peace, this couple should be in high school, they are just children!

But at this moment, they were about to embark on a battlefield where survival was slim.

Everyone knew that this separation might be their last…

They hugged each other tightly, savoring their last moments together.

Soon, the assembly signal sounded, and the young soldier released his arms from his girlfriend. The girl clutched his clothes tightly, her knuckles turning white, silently shedding tears.

"When I come back this time..." the young soldier started, but suddenly paused, then smiled and said:

"Forget about me!"

With that, he pushed the girl away forcefully, turned around, put on his helmet, and left without looking back.

In front of him, a group of young soldiers of similar age were already waiting there. A blood-colored golden star flag fluttered, and the backs of these young people faded into the distance accompanied by the rumbling engine sounds of war vehicles.

A certain shelter.

A man of about thirty-six or seven years old was packing his bags, taking out an old-fashioned military uniform from the closet of his small temporary residence. He looked at the uniform, and it seemed that some flames that had long been extinguished in his eyes were rekindled.

"Is it... is it really necessary to go? You are a retired soldier. According to the policy, you only need to stay in the shelter to maintain order. There's no need to go to the battlefield!" Behind the man, his wife said with a pale face and an anxious voice.

The man shook his head and said, "The garrison regiments in the inland combat camps and shelters were temporarily formed after the disaster. Most of them are new recruits with no combat experience at all! Without old soldiers like me to lead them, they won't be able to exert any effective combat power at all!"

"But... but that's the battlefield. Once you go, you might not come back! Even if you don't think about yourself, you should think about me, the children, and your parents!" The wife held a twelve-year-old boy in her left hand and a four-year-old girl in her arms, tears streaming down her face, "I beg you, please consider our family!"

"There are so many veterans in the Federation, they don't need you at all, but our family will be finished without you!"

The man was silent for a moment, and then said, "If everyone had your kind of thinking, then the Federation would have been destroyed decades ago when it was invaded by foreign enemies."

"Those predecessors who stood up and resisted the invaders in the founding war, didn't they have families, relatives, and children?"

"I am a soldier, and a soldier's duty is to defend the country. What's the point of having a family if the country is gone!"

The man's voice became stern, and he did not pause his movements at all, and began to put on his former military uniform.

The wife was scolded into silence, silently shedding tears.

The man's son looked at his father, and suddenly clenched his fists and said, "Dad, go ahead! I will take good care of Mom and my sister at home!"

The man showed a smile, touched his son's head, put his military cap on his head, and said with relief: "My son is a little man now!"

The four-year-old daughter still didn't understand what her father was going to do. She only knew that her father seemed to be separating from her, and she immediately cried out, opening her arms and clamoring, "Daddy don't go, Daddy hug!"

The man's eyes were red, and he tried hard not to let the tears fall.

What man would want to be separated from his family? Who would want to leave his wife and children to go to a battlefield where life and death are unknown?

How he wished he could stay here, stay with his family…

But, if he retreated now, all of everything would be reduced to ashes when the Apostles broke through the defense line and entered the human world.

Those beautiful things will be destroyed!

Those warm things will be torn apart!

"For you... that's why I must leave you now." The man silently said this sentence in his heart, then glanced at his wife and children, put on his backpack, turned around and strode out of the door.

Outside the door, eight middle-aged men in the same military uniform were already waiting.

These men were all over thirty-five years old. They were no longer young, their bodies had begun to gain weight, and some of their hair had begun to turn white.

But as long as they put on the military uniform they once wore, it seemed that the blood of their youth was boiling again at this moment.

"Old Squad Leader!"

Seeing the man come out, the eight middle-aged men who had been waiting for a long time shouted in unison.

"The Seventeenth Platoon of the Air Combat Battalion of the 386th Brigade of the Third Mechanized Division of the Northern Border Military Region has completed its assembly. Nine men should be present, and nine men are actually present!"

"Let's go!"

Without too much talk, without reminiscing, without exchanging pleasantries, at the moment of assembly, this veteran team embarked on a plane to the battlefield.

…

"The garrison regiment of Yecheng Combat Point has departed, the number is... the military strength is..."

"The garrison regiment of TS22 shelter has departed..."

"The retired personnel from the former Third Mechanized Division of the Northern Border Military Region... have departed..."

One after another, the information reports sounded in the plane Zhang Shoucheng was riding in. In just ten minutes, the entire Federation was mobilized, and almost all the troops that could be mobilized in the entire Federation had set off.

Enlisted recruits, retired veterans, garrison legions…

Almost all the combat forces that the Federation could use were assembled and followed Zhang Shoucheng!

Led by Zhang Shoucheng's plane, a sky-covering fleet of aircraft followed closely behind!

When the country is in danger, there are always people who come forward to sacrifice their lives and defy hardship.

At the same time, Zhang Shoucheng was also observing the situation inside the Federation's shelters through other satellite monitoring.

At this time, suddenly withdrawing a large number of garrison troops was also a major event if riots occurred within the shelters!

"Citizens of the Federation, at this critical moment of survival, I hope you will not panic, remain calm, and stay in the shelters without going out!"

"You only need to ensure your own safety. We will take care of defending the defense line!"

Zhang Shoucheng's face appeared on the big screens of the shelters, and he said in a sonorous voice.

His voice spread throughout all the Federation's shelters.

A little girl stood blankly in her mother's arms, listening to Zhang Shoucheng's words, and looking at the planes constantly flying across the sky, she asked curiously, "Mom, what are they going to do?"

At this time, new information was broadcasted again on the plane Zhang Shoucheng was riding.

"All garrison regiments and veteran legions have completed their assembly! Please give instructions, Commander!"

The mechanical electronic sound resounded in Zhang Shoucheng's ears.

Zhang Shoucheng stood up. He saw the scenes inside other plane cabins through the plane's internet.

The soldiers' young and vicissitude eyes were now gathered on his face, seemingly waiting for him to make the final mobilization before the war.

"Soldiers, the entire Federation, and even the entire human civilization, has reached a moment of life and death."

"Our victory or defeat will determine the fate of the entire country."

Zhang Shoucheng looked at them, and countless passionate and inspiring words flashed through his mind, but in the end, he discarded all these words and said in a gentle tone that he had never used in his life: "Children..."

"We are going to die."