pertwk 063 Joint Meeting
063 Joint Meeting
As the lively atmosphere at Kassel College gradually subsided in the evening, all the senior members of the Lionheart Society and the Student Union were present in the conference room of Amber Hall.
Caesar rested his chin on his hands, with Chu Zihang sitting opposite him, and Susie, Pacino, Lancelot, and Nono lined up in a row.
The conference room projector showed images from cameras on the bridge and deck of the Moniach, and everyone watched the entire recording in silence.
Caesar spoke first: "Everyone has already seen the mission briefing."
"Let's look at the part after the Dragon Servant appears. I've already had Norma pull out the logic behind the Dragon Servant's behavior." Caesar pressed a button on the remote control, and the screen returned to the initial stage of the battle.
The moment the anchor chain snapped, the hull of the Moniach shuddered violently.
"Before the battle began, it did something," Caesar said. "It took advantage of the moment to destroy the sonar, effectively rendering the ship's eyes useless."
"In other words, without Ye Sheng, this ship was blind from the very beginning." Caesar looked around at everyone present. "Every subsequent counterattack was built upon Ye Sheng's Words of Power."
Chu Zihang nodded slightly and said, "The next two horizontal impacts were in completely different directions. After the two failures, it immediately abandoned this attack pattern and attacked directly from the air."
"The ship's machine gun fire and Aki's Word of Power disrupted his aerial maneuverability, creating a few seconds of torpedo attack window," Lancelot said. "This was the first time the Dragon Servant had suffered a loss in the entire battle."
"Pay attention to its reaction after it suffered a loss," Caesar said, pointing to the timeline of the sonar data. "Less than ten seconds after being hit, it retreated into the deep water. Severely damaged, its first reaction was to disengage and then launch a vertical attack from the bottom."
"Professor Mans rushed to the bottom and took the hit head-on at the hull," Chu Zihang said, looking at the report. "The hull tore open, and water began to enter the port side. From this point on, the Moniach was a sinking ship."
"Then it left the water and attacked head-on. If Lu Mingfei hadn't stopped it at that moment, the operation would have failed," Caesar said. "This operation, like our last exercise, should have failed. The difference is that Lu Mingfei was involved in this operation, while our exercise design had too many flaws, leading to an unexpected victory."
"Having suffered a loss in close combat, it used tools to test the strength of Lu Mingfei's Word of Power and discovered Lu Mingfei's physical weakness," Chu Zihang said. "Finally, it directly used the water to launch a sweeping attack."
From beginning to end, this dragon servant never repeated any of its attack methods.
"It hasn't made a single mistake," Caesar said. "If it misses, it immediately changes its strategy. After each failure, it steers the battle in a direction more advantageous to itself. A third-generation species possesses this level of battlefield intelligence; what about the next generation? The first generation?"
The video continued playing as the beam of light from the positron cannon tore through the wall of water, pierced the dragon's body, and the aftershocks of the giant wave crashed onto the deck.
"What are our previous exercises compared to this?"
The two student unions joined forces for the first time, refining the exercise plan through repeated simulations. Everyone felt it was a brilliant collaboration.
Then the action log in front of them showed them what real combat was.
"It's ridiculous that people who have never seen a dragon are fantasizing about slaying one," Caesar said.
Chu Zihang said, "The people who went to Kuimen have never seen a dragon either. If they can do it, there's no reason why we can't. The question is, how did they do it?"
"Ye Sheng. His Word of Power is the Serpent. The ship's sonar was destroyed in the first wave of attacks, and from then on, all information gathering on the battlefield depended on him alone." Caesar paused. "Throughout the entire operation, his Word of Power never left the battlefield."
Chu Zihang continued, "Professor Mans."
"He predicted the impact point based on Ye Sheng's coordinates and used the Dustless Land three times to deflect the dragon servant's frontal impact." After Chu Zihang finished speaking, he looked at everyone, "You have all seen the price he paid for this."
Pacino said, "First Officer Grayson and the entire crew were also crucial. Hard port avoided the first impact, and the damage control team continued working under the hull. Without them, the Moniach wouldn't have made it to Lu Mingfei's location."
"These two were also crucial," Lancelot said. "Aki used Blazing Sun the moment the Dragon Servant flew over the bridge, briefly blinding it and sending it plummeting into the water, where it was immediately hit by a torpedo. That was the first time in the entire battle that the Dragon Servant was effectively severely damaged. Selma acted as the lubricant for the entire ship, taking over the coordination work on the bridge after Mans was injured, maintaining Ye Sheng's consciousness, and filling every temporary vacancy."
Susie closed the briefing and said, "Zero did not participate in the battle on deck." She added, "Everything she did had only one purpose: to ensure Lu Mingfei's safety."
Caesar nodded.
"Perfect teamwork, awe-inspiring fighting style," he said. "Everyone did their job to the extreme, and then they pieced together a complete puzzle on the battlefield."
"But I want everyone to look at something from the other side, which is the battlefield communication problems we exposed in the exercise, the information delays between the command and execution levels, and the chaos caused by the levels waiting for confirmation from each other."
"Actually," Nono suddenly spoke up, "they barely communicated at the time."
Caesar turned his head: "What?"
"I asked Selma," Nono said, "and no one gave any coordination orders throughout the entire battle."
Caesar asked, "How did they coordinate?"
"They are all focused on doing their own jobs well," she said, "and they also believe that others can do their jobs well."
Nono's gaze swept across everyone's face on the table, finally settling on Caesar.
"It's that simple."
Caesar slowly stood up, placed his hands on the table, and looked around at everyone present.
"We are all elites. We can fail, but we cannot admit defeat," he said. "The people involved in the Kuimen operation did just that, and from now on, we will hold ourselves to their standards."
The image on the screen finally froze.
Ling held Lu Mingfei in her arms, sitting on the deck littered with spent shell casings and puddles. The downpour had turned into a drizzle, and the distant river surface churned with turbid waves. The girl's profile was hidden in shadow, only her icy blue eyes were visible, as calm as a frozen lake.
"That concludes today's meeting," Chu Zihang said. "Susie, you can go back now. Caesar and I will discuss and formulate the follow-up exercise plan."
"Okay, I'll be going now." Susie and Lancelot left the conference room together.
"Nono, Percy, don't wait for me, you two get some rest," Caesar said, patting Nono on the shoulder.
Nono looked at Caesar and Chu Zihang for a while, nodded, and left without saying anything.
Only Caesar and Chu Zihang remained in the room.
"What's wrong?" Caesar asked.