At this point, all the cameras mounted on the bombs became ineffective, and all the large screens displayed static, making it impossible for people to see what was happening on the seabed.
"I order you to immediately detonate the depth charge on the monster's right side to block its escape route..."
With no clear view of the seabed, General Lascaux, relying on his experience, issued an order. He believed the monster was trying to break out from the right, and he hoped to detonate the bomb in time to deliver a fatal blow.
After the general gave the order, all four screens in the conference room went black. The massive bombs exploded, and the shockwave alone was enough to destroy the cameras on the other bombs.
Moreover, many depth charges on the left and top sides also exploded due to the pressure caused by the explosion.
Almost instantly, the once calm sea became turbulent, with huge waves shooting into the sky, startling the pilots of the third helicopter squadron who hadn't yet gone far away.
Meanwhile, earthquake authorities in coastal countries also sensed the seismic waves, which were no less powerful than a magnitude 3 or 4 earthquake and tsunami. If the military had not given prior notice, they probably would have issued a warning to the public.
After a brief blackout, the large screen in the conference room immediately switched to satellite monitoring, and the turbulent sea was instantly displayed before everyone.
The images sent from the sky left observers from various countries looking at each other in disbelief. They estimated that even during World War II, there had never been a battle involving the dropping of depth charges on such a scale.
The underwater conditions are now unknown. Although military satellites in the sky are powerful enough to spy on women bathing, they cannot penetrate the sea surface to investigate what is beneath it.
All people can do now is wait, wait for that enormous monster to be blown to pieces by depth charges and rise to the surface.
Seemingly sharing the same thoughts as everyone at the base, the third helicopter squadron, after dropping the bombs, did not go far away, but hovered at an altitude of one or two thousand meters above the sea, transmitting more detailed images to the base in real time.
Why isn't the third helicopter squadron returning to base?
Unbeknownst to those in the conference room, General Lascaux was already roaring in the command center, feeling extremely angry about the Third Squadron's disobedience.
"General Lascaux, you don't actually believe that the monster's corpse will cause casualties to my soldiers, do you?"
A major general in a U.S. military uniform laughed upon hearing this. He was the commander of the Third Helicopter Squadron, which consisted of his subordinates and some British soldiers.
Chapter 1293 Heavy Deaths
If we're talking about the country on this planet that most champions the supremacy of force, then the United States is undoubtedly the one.
Although the American general also saw images of the deep-sea monster, he believed that with powerful modern military weapons, they would definitely be able to wipe it out.
The order for the third squadron not to return immediately after dropping depth charges was also given by him. With this helicopter squadron present, he was able to collect the relevant monster corpses in the first instance.
"We can't see any images right now, so we don't know what the truth is..."
General Lasco's face showed a hint of worry. The depth charges dropped by the third helicopter squadron had begun to detonate before reaching their designated area. No one knew what might happen.
However, General Lascaux, who had personally witnessed the terror of that monster, still felt a vague unease. He had a feeling that this monster was not so easy to eliminate.
“General Lascaux, as a commander, your caution is understandable, but excessive caution is cowardice. I don’t believe a monster’s corpse can cause any harm to my soldiers…”
The U.S. Major General dismissed General Lasco's words. Although Lasco was the commander-in-chief of the operation, they were both major generals. This young general from West Point clearly did not take the fifty-something-year-old Lasco seriously.
"I hope so..."
Lasco shook his head, ignoring the arrogant U.S. major general, and picked up the microphone, saying, "I am Lasco, the operation's commander. I order all bombers at the base to stand by and prepare for takeoff..."
Although the U.S. Army Major General scoffed at General Lasco's actions, he was, after all, the commander-in-chief of the operation, so he didn't say much at the moment, only instructing the third helicopter squadron to prepare to retrieve the monster's corpse.
Meanwhile, in a conference room not far from the command center, naval commanders from around the world were engaged in heated discussions while watching several large screens displaying real-time satellite surveillance footage.
The crowd was now divided into two factions: one believed the monster had been eliminated, while the other, more cautious, remained skeptical about the outcome of the operation until they saw the monster's corpse.
Sitting in a corner of the conference room, Peng Fei stared blankly at the waves tens of meters high on the screen, then looked at Zhuang Rui and said, "Brother Zhuang, is that all?"
To be honest, this operation was a bit of a case of all bark and no bite. The initial helicopter formation had everyone on the edge of their seats, but the explosion that occurred underwater couldn't be seen on the surface, leaving everyone feeling rather disappointed.
"Of course it's all done, now we just wait to divide the spoils..."
Before Zhuang Rui could answer, Li Shaohua chimed in, taking over Peng Fei's words. As a naval commander, Li Shaohua was well aware of the power of these bombs. In his view, with so many depth charges, even a mountain could be leveled. The monster was nothing but flesh and blood, and it would be even more difficult to escape this calamity.
"I don't think so, Brother Li. You don't know, those two monsters in the Central African forest are practically invulnerable. If the bomb hadn't exploded inside their bodies, they'd probably still be alive and kicking..."
Zhuang Rui shook his head and continued, "In my opinion, it's possible to seriously injure that monster, but killing it is probably a bit risky..."
Zhuang Rui had "seen" the monster's tentacles before. If he could use those hundred or so tentacles to hold off the bombs for a while, escaping alive wasn't impossible. Of course, these things were best left unsaid to outsiders. ...
More than ten minutes had passed since the first depth charge was detonated, and the turbulent sea began to calm down slowly, with the waves becoming smaller.
This made the discussions in the conference room even louder. The depth charges had been detonated, and the sea was about to return to calm. All these signs indicated that the monster had been eliminated.
Under the orders of the U.S. Major General, the helicopters of the third squadron began to descend and drop some submersible robots onto the sea surface from more than a dozen helicopters.
However, the sea had not yet completely calmed down, and the images transmitted by the robot from the sea were very blurry, making it impossible to discern any images. Everyone could only patiently wait for the robot to enter the deep sea and transmit the underwater situation.
As the robot continued to descend, the seawater gradually calmed down. However, the once clear seawater was now blood red, causing everyone to stare wide-eyed at the display screen.
As they continued to descend deeper into the water, huge unidentified objects would occasionally swoop past the robot. Everyone knew that these... were probably pieces that had broken off from the monster.
"See? I told you, this monster was already blown to pieces..."
Upon seeing the scene at the bottom of the sea, the American general smiled smugly. However, before his smile could fade, the image on a display screen suddenly disappeared.
"Hmm? Is there a problem with the signal?"
The American major general frowned. Before he could give any instructions, the images transmitted by the dozen or so robots disappeared one by one.
However, upon closer inspection, everyone noticed that before the image disappeared, the robot seemed to have been hit by a powerful object. The object that hit the robot was moving at such a high speed that it was impossible to identify what it was.
It's understandable for a robot to malfunction after colliding with an object in the sea, but for a dozen or so robots to malfunction at the same time is definitely not a coincidence.
This immediately put everyone, from the command center to the conference room, on edge. People always hold the unknown in awe.
"Third helicopter formation, this is Lasco. I order you to immediately increase your altitude and return to base..."
Seeing the scene before him, General Lasco felt a sense of foreboding. He shoved aside the American major general who acted as if he were the commander-in-chief and gave orders to the third helicopter squadron.
Before the other party could reply, a dark, round object suddenly appeared on the sea surface, which had been switched to satellite monitoring.
This object is over twenty meters in diameter. From the air, it looks like a platform. However, it has dozens of suction cup-like things of various sizes growing on it.
While the coalition generals in the command post were all bewildered, General Lascaux's face turned deathly pale in an instant. He grabbed the microphone in front of him and shouted, "Quick, ascend! Ascend quickly!" However, this order was obviously given too late. Before the pilots of the third helicopter squadron could react, the suction cup-like object that had been slowly rising from the sea surface suddenly shot out of the water like a spring and flew towards the helicopters in the sky like lightning.
Because of the need to deploy underwater robots, the dozen or so helicopters that flew the lowest altitude, which was only thirty to fifty meters above the sea surface, were hit by objects that shot out from the sea before they could react at all.
A dark, steel-like object swept past more than a dozen helicopters like an iron whip. These helicopters were as fragile as paper; their rotors and fuselages instantly detached, and they were whipped to pieces. Fireballs lit up the sky before they plummeted into the sea.
It all happened so fast that no one who witnessed it had time to react.
From the moment the unknown object surfaced to the moment the helicopter crashed into the sea, only a few seconds passed, all thanks to General Lasco's single order.
After a deathly silence, a gasp suddenly erupted in the conference room. Everyone was stunned by the monster's powerful vitality. After being bombarded with such dense bombs, this monster still had the power to fight back.
However, the scene before them left the generals no time to think of a solution.
Because the object covered in suckers, resembling tentacles, did not retract back into the sea after shooting down more than ten helicopters, but continued to rise into the sky, its target clearly aimed at the remaining dozens of helicopters in the air.
"Return to base, return to base, return to base immediately!" This time, the hoarse voice came from the American major general.
In an instant, more than a dozen helicopters and their crews were lost, leaving the arrogant American general deathly pale.
It should be noted that, apart from the two wars that took place in Asia in the 1950s and 1970s, in which American soldiers suffered heavy casualties, the losses of American soldiers in the various foreign wars over the past few decades have been almost negligible.
Due to his carelessness and misjudgment, more than a dozen American and British soldiers died. The major general knew that he could not escape the investigation by the military court.
The U.S. Major General is now only hoping that the remaining helicopter squadron members can escape the monster's pursuit, so that his charge of mismanagement will be lessened.
However, reality is always cruel, because the remaining thirty or forty helicopters did not follow Major General Lasker's orders at the beginning, but simply hovered in the air at about a thousand meters.
At this altitude, it was far from enough for them to escape death. Even as these helicopters climbed upwards at a speed of 10 to 20 meters per second, the pilots still desperately discovered, in their final moments, that enormous, tentacle-like creature appeared beside them.
In less than a minute, the helicopter formation that had been in the sky disappeared completely, and all that appeared on the screen was the fire caused by leaked engine oil on the sea.
"This...this is too damn powerful! Even a fighter squadron wouldn't be able to wipe out dozens of helicopters this quickly, would it?"
When all of this was over, Peng Feimeng's booming voice rang out in the deathly silent conference room.
Chapter 1294 Countermeasures
"They...they're all dead?"
The American general stared blankly at the big screen. He was already white, but now his face was deathly pale, almost bloodless. He knew that his military career was over from this moment on.
Since the 1970s, apart from the war in the jungles of Vietnam that resulted in heavy casualties among American soldiers, this is arguably the most significant blow suffered by the U.S. military.
The crucial point is that this attack was entirely caused by the general's misjudgment, and it is believed that by the time the news gets out, it will be the date he returns home to face trial.
Not only the U.S. rear admiral, but almost all the naval officers who witnessed this scene looked at each other in disbelief, unable to believe what had just happened.
In just over a minute, an entire helicopter squadron was wiped out? It wasn't until Peng Fei's voice rang out in the conference room that everyone snapped out of their shock.
"This...how is this possible?"
"God, what...what kind of monster is this?"
"So many depth charges failed to kill it, God, how can we kill this monster?"
The faces of the crowd were filled with disbelief, but the facts were right before their eyes: the helicopter formation that had been so arrogant in the sky just moments before was now indeed reduced to pieces of wreckage burning on the sea.
Faced with such a monster, let alone individual combat power, even a multinational coalition army was helpless against it. Everyone really didn't know how to completely eliminate it.
"Brother Zhuang, this thing is much more powerful than the monsters in the forest. It turns out that the bigger it is, the more powerful it is. Tsk tsk, if we could capture it and build a zoo, we could make so much money from ticket sales that we wouldn't know what to do with it."
No matter how powerful this monster is, it has absolutely nothing to do with Comrade Peng Fei. Therefore, if we're talking about who's most relaxed right now, it's probably Peng Fei. He can make these sarcastic remarks without any pressure.
"Get out of here. If the monster doesn't die, what's the point of our trip?"
Zhuang Rui glared at the gloating Peng Fei, his brows furrowing. Judging from the monster's counterattack, it was definitely not fatally injured.
This attack might force the monster to hide in deeper waters, but with such a monster in the ocean, even Zhuang Ruiren, no matter how bold, wouldn't dare to go there to salvage the sunken gold ship.
"Won't this monster retaliate? I need to contact the president. We need to declare martial law on the coast." In the command center, a general whose coastline was only a little over a thousand nautical miles from the monster suddenly stood up. If this behemoth really came ashore, it would bring a catastrophic blow to his country.
Several countries' coastlines are connected to this sea area. After hearing the general's words, several people stood up, wanting to communicate with their countries. It's always better to be prepared than unprepared, right?
Panic filled the command center. Such a large-scale bombing attack had failed to fatally damage the monster, leaving everyone feeling frustrated and powerless.
Seeing the chaotic scene in the command post, General Lascaux stood up and shouted, "Quiet, everyone, quiet down..."
Seeing Lasco stand up, the American major general grasped at a straw and hurriedly asked, "General Lasco, do you have any other ideas?"
Although he couldn't escape the blame for mismanagement, the American general still hoped to kill the monster, which would somewhat lessen his guilt.
"What other good ideas are there? It's just a thermobaric bomb, but this monster won't come out of the water, so the thermobaric bomb won't do anything to it..."