Dozens of frog bombs whistled through the air, exploding mid-flight. Shrapnel flew amidst blinding flames, and large clouds of white smoke bloomed in the sky, resembling giant popcorn.
These frog bombs were not duds; they were live and packed a considerable punch. Jiang Ye’s office reverberated with thunderous explosions, causing his teacup to jump on the desk.
The first volley of frog bombs missed the ornithopters. The two leading ornithopters had already sharply ascended to an altitude of over a hundred meters.
The Frog Mother quickly spewed two more volleys of frog bombs. The firing sounds were deafening, but those frog bombs were not anti-air weapons; they fell before reaching a hundred meters. Explosions erupted everywhere on the ground, sending snow and debris flying. The smooth snowfield was pockmarked with craters, as if blasted by a shotgun.
“Commander, request permission to drop bombs and try to destroy the Frog Mother,” said Ban Saka Ryosuke.
“Approved!” Jiang Ye said decisively.
Ban Saka Ryosuke quickly adjusted the direction, re-aimed the nose of the aircraft at the Frog Mother, retracted the wings, and plunged downwards in a freefall.
The Frog Mother, emitting thick smoke as if it were a sulfur-eating monster, remained motionless. It no longer fired, simply waiting, or perhaps it had run out of frog bombs.
As the ornithopter descended to seventy meters, it suddenly released two aerial bombs and simultaneously opened its wings, rapidly ascending.
Almost at the same time, all the cannons on the Frog Mother fired in unison, launching hundreds of frog bombs that streaked into the sky, leaving spectacular trails of smoke!
With two more thunderous booms, the Frog Mother fired three times in rapid succession within two seconds, changing its angle with each volley. The launched frog bombs wove a dense web of fire in the air.
Cen Yemeng’s letter mentioned that the Frog Mother was a low-level, low-intelligence war machine. However, the intelligence displayed by this unit at the moment was astonishing. It patiently waited for the ornithopter to dive, seized the opportunity to unleash its firepower, as if operated by a seasoned veteran.
The explosions struck Jiang Ye’s ears like lightning. He flinched, his ears immediately ringing. If he had known the sound effects would be so good, he wouldn’t have turned up the volume.
Various alarms blared. The ornithopter was hit by frog bombs. The windshield cracked, and powdery glass shards were whipped around by the wind. Ban Saka Ryosuke struggled to control the aircraft, barely managing to keep it stable.
“How’s the plane?” Jiang Ye asked.
“32% damaged, but the main modules are intact. It can still fly,” Ban Saka Ryosuke replied, his tone still calm. “I’ll change direction to get a look at the Frog Mother.”
“Be careful,” Jiang Ye reminded him.
The nose of the aircraft was already close to the clouds, and the view was severely shaken. The damage to the ornithopter was indeed significant, but Ban Saka Ryosuke’s skill allowed him to maintain control.
After a brief maneuver, the nose pointed downwards, offering a clear view of the snowfield.
Thick smoke and flames billowed into the sky. The three-story-tall Frog Mother had become a charred inferno, with burning parts scattered everywhere. Hundreds of craters around it were still smoking. Ban Saka Ryosuke daringly lowered the ornithopter’s altitude to fifty meters, flying directly over the Frog Mother’s head. However, the Frog Mother showed no reaction, only rumbling as it burned.
The entire scene looked as if a battle involving hundreds of soldiers had taken place. The snow had been thoroughly churned by bombs. If there had been any people or animals nearby, they would have been utterly obliterated. Yet, such a massive destruction was caused by a single Frog Mother.
The Mil had quietly brought the Frog Mother to this planet. This was the first one encountered, and it was unknown how many more there were. It was possible that Frog Mothers were scattered all over the globe.
“Commander, do you recognize this thing?” Ban Saka Ryosuke asked.
“It’s a type of unmanned war machine used by the Mil. I’ve only heard about it, and I didn’t expect our planet to have them. You continue to drop leaflets at Point C. Be extremely careful, maintain your altitude, and don’t get hit by the Frog Mother,” Jiang Ye said with a grim expression. “I’ll request some data on the Frog Mother from the military.”
“Yes!” Ban Saka Ryosuke replied.
Taking out his phone, Jiang Ye quickly sent a message to Li Nannan.
Jiang Ye: “Officer, we have Frog Mothers on our planet. Do you have any specific information about them?”
As soon as the message was sent, his phone vibrated.
Li Nannan: “[Automatic Reply] Hello, I am currently at the front lines. If you have matters to discuss, please leave a message. If I do not reply, it means I am dead.”
Jiang Ye scratched his head, frowning in worry. Li Nannan was still fighting on the front lines.
He also couldn’t contact the military. Single-line communication was indeed unreliable. Many underground agents during the Anti-Japanese War suffered due to single-line communication; if their contact was lost, they were also lost.
An idea struck him, and Jiang Ye opened the “StarNet” group chat.
He directly posted his question in the group.
Jiang Ye Star Commander: “Sirs! Do any of you have information on Frog Mothers? Urgent request, urgent request! Thank you, thank you!”
Har Star High Priest: “You have Frog Mothers there too?”
Ice Green Planet Governor: “What is a Frog Mother? A mother frog? No, it should be a tadpole’s mother?”
Jiang Ye Star Commander: “@Har Star High Priest, Sir! Requesting Frog Mother data! We just destroyed one here.”
Har Star High Priest: “I don’t have complete data either, because the Frog Mother is something recently developed by the Mil. It’s a brand new thing, and the military is also researching it.”
Har Star High Priest: “What I can tell you is that the Frog Mother is very cheap, a mass-produced low-level machine. It’s said that the production capacity of a small Mil military factory can produce 50,000 Frog Mothers daily. There are thousands of such small military factories on the Mil’s industrial planets, and they have dozens of industrial planets.”
Jiang Ye was stunned.
This was a simple math problem that made his scalp tingle:
One military factory, with a daily capacity of about 50,000 Frog Mothers.
One planet has tens of thousands of military factories, and there are dozens of such planets.
This meant that the Mil could produce billions of identical Frog Mothers every day!
Jiang Ye closed his eyes, imagining swarms of Frog Mothers descending from the sky, surrounding Binhai City like they were free, spewing frog bombs even denser than a sandstorm…
Har Star High Priest: “But don’t worry, this thing doesn’t pose a threat.”
Jiang Ye Star Commander: “It’s a huge threat! That thing can spit bombs like crazy. If a Frog Mother drops into my city, it could level half of it in minutes! If a few more come, the citizens will be turned to ashes!”
Har Star High Priest: “It’s not that bad, don’t panic. Let me explain why it doesn’t pose a threat.”
Har Star High Priest: “First, these things are rushed during wartime. Their production is too high, and the cost is very low. They are made from scrap parts, considered remanufactured waste products, and are therefore particularly crudely made.”
Jiang Ye thought to himself, the gap is truly immense. Even their remanufactured waste products are so formidable, spewing bombs with the momentum of a small volcano.
Har Star High Priest: “According to intelligence, a considerable proportion of Frog Mothers will have quality issues, such as being duds. The military has already studied the frog bombs. The internal structure of the frog bombs is immature. When subjected to violent vibrations, the detonator fuse is prone to breaking, causing the explosives to fail to detonate.”
Har Star High Priest: “The Frog Mother lands via hard impact, without parachutes or thrust reversal, crashing to the ground like a meteor. Many Frog Mothers are damaged upon landing, and the remaining ones are also easily shaken to damage the fuses of the frog bombs, resulting in most of them being duds.”
Jiang Ye suddenly understood. No wonder the frog bombs encountered by Cen Yemeng had not exploded.
Crude manufacturing is indeed a good term. Let’s hope the Mil’s factories continue to be crudely made, and never improve their product quality!