Arknights' Lock of Heaven

“Why…why is this happening?”

Jonathan looked at Franz, who seemed completely lost, and felt very disappointed.

Tsk, this is what happens when you've never seen anything like it. A pampered young master, having a solid theoretical foundation doesn't mean everything.

“It does seem like a natural disaster, a cold wave, and I’ve seen people die from it,” he said, shaking his head. “But it’s different from what’s happening now.”

“Where a natural disaster strikes, there will always be Originium crystals, but look around,” he gestured to Franz, “we haven’t found any Originium crystals.”

"This..." Franz forced himself to calm down, then quickly surveyed the chaotic camp around him.

“These traces…something’s not right?” He suddenly seemed to have discovered something. “This camp is too rudimentary, and there are signs of it being looted everywhere. You were only a dozen minutes ahead of me, these traces couldn’t have been left by you…”

“Someone did all this!” he exclaimed.

“Impossible!” Jonathan shook his head upon hearing this. “Not to mention how many people in the world could do this, just based on our hasty statistics, the people who left these traces came for all kinds of supplies in the camp. They almost emptied out all the food and half of the winter clothing.”

"In my opinion, these marks were made by nearby refugees or villages. If someone could really kill five thousand people, why would they care about such a small amount of stuff?"

"How could someone like that stay with a group of refugees? With such skills, why can't he enjoy wealth and honor anywhere else? Why is he suffering in this bitterly cold snowfield?"

“Perhaps they are from the Patriots’ side!” Franz guessed. “They would do anything to get the food they’re after.”

“But if there are such powerful individuals among the infected on the Patriots’ side, it’s impossible that we wouldn’t know at all,” Jonathan sighed. “Besides, that’s not the most important thing right now.”

"The most crucial question is, should we continue our mission?"

Oh, right, the mission!

Upon hearing this, Franz paused for a moment.

Faced with an unknown crisis, what should be done about the mission?

“I think…” he began with difficulty, “we need to ask the general for orders.”

“Yes, I think so too,” Jonathan said with a broad smile.

He was one of General Boris's men, having followed the general since the Third Army.

Jonathan felt a great sense of satisfaction looking at Franz, who was standing in front of him with his head down, seemingly lost in thought.

Then, looking at Nikolai, who was already dead, he was even happier.

Just then, on the Ural.

What are Franz and the others doing?

Boris watched as the forces he had sent out to attack, or rather probe, the Orville gradually came to a stop at the edge of the channel, and fell into deep thought.

"Could it be that they've discovered something...?"

Speak of the devil and he appears; while he was still pondering, the vanguard's communication came through.

“General, we have located Colonel Nikolai’s troops,” Jonathan’s voice came through the communicator.

"How are they?" Boris frowned upon hearing this.

“The entire army has been wiped out, General,” Jonathan said gravely. “While this isn’t the whole force, I don’t think anyone should have survived.”

"Including Colonel Nikolai, whose body is now right in front of me and Lieutenant Colonel Franz."

Hearing this, Boris felt a sense of relief for some reason.

Perhaps... even he was tired of cleaning up Nikolai's messes.

As for how to explain things to our old friends, we'll talk about that later. Right now, the most important thing is to figure out the situation.

Without even a moment's mourning for Nikolai's death, Boris turned and asked, "Oh, I see. Who killed that unit?"

His voice remained as steady as ever.

Franz, who was in the camp, looked up in disbelief upon hearing this. He had expected Boris to fly into a rage upon learning of Nikolai's death, but instead, he simply said, "I know."

How is this going?

Jonathan ignored his doubts and continued his report: "Unable to determine... General, on the surface, they died from the cold wave, which is the natural disaster that Mayor Cheplini and you mentioned, the one they fabricated!"

Upon hearing this, Boris broke out in a cold sweat.

Natural disaster? Impossible! Lermontov has no reason to lie to himself!

Has he secretly sided with the emperor?

But why?

In his moment of utter confusion, he suddenly grasped the key point in Jonathan's words: "On the surface? That is to say, there's something else in reality..."

"Yes, General, we did not find any Originium crystals left behind by the natural disaster at the scene."

“This doesn’t make sense, General.”

Upon hearing this, Boris opened his mouth, but didn't know what to say.

what is the problem?

Since leaving Ceprini, he felt as if he were surrounded by a thick fog, unable to see the road ahead or his surroundings.

"General, what should we do next?"

Jonathan's request came through the communicator, but Boris didn't know what to do either.

He couldn't see what was hidden behind this unpredictable mission at all.

"General, we should immediately commit all our forces to this!"

Just then, Franz's voice came from the other end of the communicator, "General, I apologize for my rudeness to you before. You are right, there are indeed things that we do not know about, but now we must hurry."

In the makeshift camp, Jonathan watched in amazement as Franz suddenly perked up.

"General, I know what you're worried about, but do you think we have any way out?"

"The task entrusted by the Grand Canal is right in front of us. In any case, we cannot back down before we destroy that ship."

“Even in this desolate snowfield, the Grand Duke is watching us.”

Upon hearing this, Boris suddenly realized what was happening.

"you're right."

Yes, where would they get a way out?

If the Sixth Army Group cannot even accomplish the mission of attacking a cargo ship with tens of thousands of troops and two warships, then is there any need for its existence?

Boris Johnson's record was unremarkable, so how did he become a general of an army group?

He relied on the appreciation of the Grand Duke behind him. The Duke said that he didn't need the army he built to be particularly powerful, as long as it was a normal army. He was hired because he was lucky.

Now, after so many years of building up the Sixth Army Group, it finally managed to get a mission, and he just slunk back with his troops like this...

Then everything now will vanish like a dream.

He reached out and touched his general's uniform, wondering if he could bear to part with it.

After a lifetime of military service, how could he possibly give up this position?

Despite countless alarming cries of his instinct to survive the battlefield, he still uttered the order.

"Pass on my order: catch up with that ship and destroy it as quickly as possible."

As soon as he finished speaking, the two enormous vessels began to move again.

Yes, I have two warships.

I should be fine...

On the hill.

Xia Yu looked at the Ursus warship, which had started moving again, completely bewildered.

387 Am I such an unreliable person?

"Why... is it moving again?"

Xia Yu said, completely bewildered, "I haven't even ordered the Orville to move yet."

"What exactly is the Sixth Army Group up to?"

“That’s war,” Anton said with emotion behind him. “There is never a plan that is 100% successful. Every seemingly perfect step can go wrong at any time.”

"Your plan is indeed sound; perhaps the generals you were dealing with were just too cautious."

"But as long as we grasp the core of the problem, which is that they are determined to take over the Orville ship no matter what, minor flaws can be completely ignored."

"That's how war is. No one can anticipate every move the enemy makes. When the Ursus Group marched across the Golden Plains of Kazimir during the Tenth Uka War, they never imagined that their hundreds of thousands of troops would be defeated by a mere forty-odd knights."

Did those knights really defeat the hundreds of thousands of Ursus troops?

Anton sighed at this point, "Impossible. In the end, they only have forty-seven people."

"But they routed Ursus's vanguard, charging through the ranks and crushing them back and forth."

"The vanguard was the first to collapse, and then the troops behind them, who were unaware of the specific situation, also began to retreat. In addition, the previous battles had been too successful, so no one paid much attention to Kazimir, resulting in hundreds of thousands of troops rushing into the Golden Plains in one go."

"Everyone wanted military merit, and everyone was scrambling to be the first. At that time, the merit of capturing a city could really allow a person to jump social classes, so the organizational structure of the Ursus army at that time was quite chaotic."

"Ultimately, the chain reaction that led to the great defeat was a result of this."