“…… The political unification of the League was far less effective than the economic and military unification, and the inter-regional alliance was still dominated by large alliances of states, similar to the United States at the end of the 18th century. From this point of view, the political foundation of the League is not solid, so it must take into account the interests of all parties when making any strategic decisions, and carefully balance the number of people from all continents in the Congress and the Cabinet......"

- "Alliance Weekend"

***

East Coast Time, May 7, 2178, 1:23 p.m.

5 hours before the countdown to the official start of the attack.

Northwest Atlantic, Confederate belonging, No. 4 chemical maritime city.

As its name suggests, the maritime metropolis is designed to be a city with oil refining and chemical missions as its main mission, and its route is to obtain crude oil from shale fields in the North Sea along the northern North Atlantic, which is then refined and shipped to the major cities on the east coast of North America. No. 4 is not the largest, mainly because No. 4 is tasked with the processing of crude oil and the rough processing of some crude oil chemicals, unlike some other larger cities, which have supporting chemical product manufacturing plants, such as various plastic petroleum refinings.

But compared to other cities, No. 4 has a unique military oil processing center that can provide large quantities of aviation kerosene, marine diesel and even heavy fuel oil for warships, although the Alliance is already designing large warships with fusion reactors as the core power source, and aircraft carriers have achieved the popularization of fission reactors, but among other escort warships. Or still retain a large number of ships with traditional power.

Therefore, another identity of the No. 4 maritime city is to serve as a former floating island fortress during naval battles, and to carry out the necessary fuel supply for fighters and warships, in order to meet this requirement, not only the anti-sinking ability and anti-strike ability of No. 4 maritime city are designed according to the level of military fortresses, but it also has a very large airport, a large number of hangars and spare parts, and a huge dock.

However, at this moment, this maritime city. It has fallen silently.

A few hours ago. A transport plane with the identification signal of the Confederate Secret Service landed in City 4 to demand emergency refueling, but more than a dozen TFs were killed in the cargo hold of the plane, and almost at the same time, the previous tourist. The Eye of Solidarity agents who landed on shore to cover their identities took control of the entire city almost instantly. And their cover identity. All of them were provided by the Secret Service.

"Let the fourth group stop disposing of the corpses, board the ship immediately, and speed up the preparation of the aircraft."

An ACA admiral was standing in the makeshift operations center by the airfield at this moment. Swiftly giving orders to his communications staff officers, in the distant hangar, a large M-99 multi-purpose strategic transport plane painted with the ACA logo was carrying huge cruise missiles.

Different from the C292, the strategic transport aircraft used by the ACA Air Force is slightly smaller, whether it is the ability to resist strikes, stealth penetration, or delivery capabilities, or range, are slightly inferior, but the modular range of this strategic transport aircraft is higher than that of the Alliance's C292, an M-99 "Hercules" can be transformed into an aerial gunboat within 3 hours with the support of ground crew, or a mobile missile launch platform with various types of missiles launched from the air.

'Sir!' Neptune's call! ”

"Take it."

The Admiral tapped his finger on the screen in front of him, and an order came from Neptune, which was nothing more than an order for him to complete his work at the scheduled time and let his troops attack.

The admiral looked at the watch with his backhand, then at the progress bar, and mentally calculated to make sure that there was no problem.

"Call Neptune back, there's no problem on our side."

The Admiral nodded, and almost at the same time, the electronic doors of the Provisional Command opened, and a colonel wearing the uniform of the Eyes of Unity walked in.

"General, we're ready."

"Okay, good work." The admiral nodded in acknowledgment, then looked at his watch again, "Unpack the order and get moving." ”

"I'll leave it to you, Colonel, then, and I'll go back to my fleet." The admiral gave the last order, looked at the suddenly boiling airfield, turned around, saluted the colonel in the eye of unity, who returned a military salute, and then tilted his head, and the combat staff officers who followed him walked to the instruments of the headquarters and replaced the naval officers.

"May the light of evolution shine on all mankind."

"May the light of evolution shine on all mankind."

The moment the two officers passed by, they exchanged a prayer in a low voice.

***

U.S. East Coast Time, May 7, 2178, 6:40 p.m.

In the western Atlantic, the detection range of the Allied shore-based early warning aircraft is 14 kilometers away.

The sun had just set, and the Atlantic Ocean was still reflecting the sparkling light of the setting sun, and the white waves gently rolled up before sinking into the sea.

Suddenly, the calm sea boiled over, and a black shadow about two kilometers long and nearly two hundred meters wide suddenly cut through the water, rushed into the air, and then fell heavily on the sea.

Before the waves of the huge submarine could fall back into the water, a cacophony of metal scraping sounded from the upper third of the cylindrical colossal submarine's hull, and the canopy was split in two along the centerline, revealing the runway hidden beneath the armored casing in the final rays of the setting sun.

"Urgent ascent completed!"

"The hull departments report...... No anomalies! ”

"Aeronautical Catapult Component Inspection...... No anomalies! ”

"Missile system detection...... No anomalies! ”

"Radar and command system detection...... No anomalies! ”

"The control of the air fleet is being handed over!"

"This is probably the third time that the actual combat mission has risen."

In the armored bridge, the president of the Anti-Cartel Monopoly Society, Clark. Robertson turned his head to look at Captain Neptune, who was standing beside him, dressed in a crisp ACA Navy uniform. Speak gently.

"Yes, Your Excellency." The captain nodded slightly, with his left hand behind his back, and with his right hand, he took out an old-fashioned pocket watch from his pocket and opened the golden lid, the hour hand pointing exactly to 7 p.m.

"Char's detachment has also set off." Clarke. Robertson turned his head and looked at the other officials standing on the bridge—almost the entire ACA cabinet was concentrated on the bridge—and muttered to himself, then walked over to the console, pressed his hand to the panel in front of him, and took a breath. Placket. "Let's get started."

The captain nodded, walked to the side, picked up the radio on the panel, and closed his eyes. Opened the ship-wide broadcast.

"Attention everyone! The captain commanded. Now let's start with the 'candle wax' program. Repeat, now let's start with the 'candle wax' program! ”

"Attention Air Force! The command has been confirmed! Codenamed 'Candle Wax'! ”

"Attention Missile Center! The command has been confirmed! Codenamed 'Candle Wax'! ”

"Ground Team ......"

"Electronic warfare sector ......"

……

The piercing air defense sirens sounded in an instant, and the already boiling sea was pushed to a climax. The last text on the electronic board in the hands of the staff officers of different levels in various departments was instantly unlocked, all the radio channels were filled in an instant, and one after another orders were conveyed to every corner of the entire submarine.

The flight deck, which had just seen the light of day, was like a red-hot soldering iron that had been poured with water, and countless ground crews dressed in various costumes rushed to their posts in a chaotic and orderly manner; On the lower deck, the pilots who had already put on the anti-load suits put on the HUD helmet, boarded their own flying exoskeleton devices, and then rushed to their own fighters, XR-77 "Black Mamba" fighters and AR-2 "Roar" attack aircraft pilots boarded their own cars respectively, so that their exoskeletons were connected to the systems in the cabin, and the left horizontal and right vertical joysticks that were originally pinned under the wrist instantly popped up, and the ground crew lying on the side of the cockpit watched these experienced pilots skillfully adjust the joysticks and pedalsAfter a few seconds of re-checking, the pilot saluted the ground crew through the helmet, the ground crew jumped back, landed steadily by the exoskeleton, and then watched the cockpit canopy slowly close, and with a wave of his hand, the zipline on the ground that originally fixed the aircraft turned under the command of the gesture sensor, and arranged the planes like zippers in the direction of the elevator.

At the front of the hangar, the first "Destroyer" has been taken by the zipline to the turntable of the lift, which slowly turns as the lift rises, aiming its nose at the runway, and the pilots are briefed - although they have rehearsed the mission countless times.

"Sailing against the wind is complete! Enter the take-off procedure! ”

Control of the aircraft that had been raised to the deck was put in the hands of the pilot, and the pedals and joysticks turned again to complete the final inspection of the nozzles of the aileron and vector engines. Then, the nose wheel of the aircraft was hooked by the hovering catapult vehicle on the lower deck, and the electromagnetic catapult was activated at the moment when the ground crew's final take-off gesture was made, throwing the fighter directly off the deck.

At the moment when the pilot rushed out of the deck and the flame of the fighter's engine turned from red to blue, the missile vertical launch system behind the deck began an intensive launch, and the four AWACS aircraft on the path of these fighters would be directly shot down by these hypersonic ultra-long-range sea-to-air missiles with active radar systems, becoming the first victims of the "candlewax" program.

"Your Excellency, Baltimore, too, has begun to act."

Chairman Robertson, who was standing on the armored bridge, watched the warplanes and missiles flying into the sky at the same time on the screen, and then an adjutant walked up to him and whispered.

"Well, so far a qiēshun lì." Robertson smiled softly.

"Also...... David. Morgan committed suicide. ”

"I see." Chairman Robertson frowned, but immediately stretched out and nodded, signaling that he understood.

The adjutant turned away from the bridge, and Robertson raised his head, refocusing his gaze on the screen, coldly curling the corners of his mouth.

If the Alliance is so desperate for a war, what is there to dodge itself? He knew what the Evolutionists were doing, but judging from the latest reconnaissance, the alliance didn't get the information in time to set up defenses.

Twenty years on, Robertson is no longer the warrior who made a career on the front lines, but a politician altogether, and he connived at the Evolutionists for the same reasons he continued to carry out Operation Candlewax.

How to defeat a powerful monster? The best way to do that is to dismember it, and in fact, one of the problems that many people don't realize is that the Alliance's current global cooperation is built on a shaky layer of ice.

Relying on Icarus, and a strong, military-biased government, to achieve unification is dangerous in itself.

This is also the deep-seated reason why the League has not dared to carry out large-scale war mobilization -- why should the British, who are at peace and quiet, defend their homeland for the French?

Human beings, after all, are still selfish animals.

He could even already imagine whether the generals from different countries would obey the local government or the improvised central government, which had no prestige, when the alliance had not yet been fully integrated, and when it lost a strong leadership group and faced a massive attack by the ACA.

There is no suspense in the answer.

And this ...... This is just the beginning.

And just as Robertson was thinking about it, Grant, who was wearing a military coat. Colona, Snakeeye, walked into a pitch-black room on the Neptune without anyone else noticing. (To be continued......)