Shimazu Mina was someone who had received exemplary upbringing. She was extremely clear that should Sakura Town fall, the survivors would either be killed by the zombies, starve to death or even killing amongst themselves.
Yue Zhong eyed Shimazu Mina and spoke softly: "Mina, I'm sorry. I really don't have a reason to stay back and fight a losing battle."
A look of despair flashed past Shimazu Mina's eyes, as she gritted her teeth and mulled silently. She suddenly lifted her head to look at Yue Zhong, standing up and motioned to him: "Otto-sama, please come with me."
Yue Zhong followed Shimazu Mina silently, as they headed out of the town. He knew his strength and wasn't afraid of Shimazu Mina trying anything funny.
Under her lead, they came to a small hill behind Sakura Town.
There was a huge cave entrance in the side of the hill, with a dozen Enhancers of above Level 30 standing guard.
Shimazu Mina entered the cave, and keyed in a code to reveal a bright and futuristic tunnel.
They passed through an electronic gate, before Yue Zhong came to a platform. Peering below, what he saw gave him a huge shock.
Below the huge platform, there was a golden fortress in the midst of construction. It spanned over 20 meters, and its height was about the same. This was precisely the Sky Fortress that Yue Zhong had seen in the blueprints, however, compared to the original version, this golden one was lacking 4 of the main cannons, and 36 of the side cannons as well as other large caliber guns. It was also slightly smaller in size. It looked just like a flying saucer. There were over a thousand people working on it, and the difficulty in constructing this was apparent.
Shimazu Mina pointed to that Sky Fortress and said: "This was commissioned by Otou-sama. He had the designs and thus he wanted to start work on what he could. This Sky Fortress can fly, but its combat ability is almost non-existent. We could only fit about a dozen 20mm calibre cannons. It is not finished yet, and would require roughly another 20 days. Once this is done, it would belong to you, Otto-sama. Please help me to defend Sakura Town!"
There were 7 parts to the Sky Fortress. Only by collecting all 7 blueprints would one be able to determine the proper procedures and materials to manufacture an actual Sky Fortress.
However, each blueprint held advanced technology within themselves. Any single one would be enough for research to commence. Shimazu Fuji had only obtained 2 parts of the diagram, and made leaps and bounds in his own research to begin construction of the Sky Fortress. In the end, he had died, and only managed to develop a half-completed product.
Yue Zhong looked at the spaceship-like structure, and a feverish excitement burned in his eyes: "Good! I'll help you! However, you must hand the personnel working on this to me, and let me bring them to China."
Shimazu Mina smiled gently at Yue Zhong: "Of course! Everything of mine belongs to Otto-sama!"
Shimazu Mina was an intelligent woman. She knew that the Sky Fortress had taken up a lot of resources to construct. There was no way the Shimazu Clan could build another one. Hence, by handing it all to Yue Zhong, not only would they be able to utilize it to escape, they could also further strengthen the alliance between Yue Zhong and themselves.
Of course, in the long run, while they might have lost a team of excellent workers, that might adversely affect the Shimazu Clan's future, they had no choice. The other alternative was to face death right now. Between the 2 choices, Shimazu Mina chose the survival of her clan and people, and the preservation of their power.
Yue Zhong came to a decision, and began directing the defensive works.
Under Yue Zhong's orders, a number of heavy machine guns were dismantled from the Thunder Fighters and fixed on top the city walls. Those heavy firearms could tear a person into shreds.
After making a number of arrangements, Yue Zhong sat on a refueled Thunder Fighter and under the defence of the other 3, they flew towards the direction of the zombie horde.
4 Thunder Fighters flew in the skies, and soon reached the skies above the zombies.
Yue Zhong looked down, and saw a vast horde that stretched for over dozens of kilometres. Yama County had a few hundred thousands of people before the apocalypse. After the apocalypse set in, most of them became zombies, and they had gathered, moving towards Sakura Town.
Yue Zhong ordered: "Search for the L4. Inform me when you've found the target."
The 4 Thunder Fighters responded in a resounding voice: "Roger!"
"Fly low!"
The 4 Thunder Fighters began to fly low, about a 100m away from the ground. It was a decent height to locate the L4.
After all, the L4 was about 5m tall, almost the size of a small house. It was a sight hard to miss among the ordinary zombies. Soon, Yue Zhong discovered 4 L4s and a number of L3s huddled together, very obviously the personal guards of the Z-type commander.
"Utilize the cluster bomb to assault them!" Yue Zhong pointed towards the L4 and ordered out.
The 4 Thunder Fighters roared above the area where the L4s were, and dropped their cluster bombs.
Hong! Hong!! Hong!!
The moment the cluster bombs landed, they exploded wildly. The sounds of explosions continued to ring out incessantly. Everything within a few kilometres of the L4s as the centre was enveloped in the explosion.
The terrifying explosions instantly tore countless zombies apart. Other than the L4s, the rest of the zombies were all decimated in the explosion.
The defences of the L4s were after all, exceeding even that of tanks. Under that assault, they suffered a number of injuries, and were enveloped by the heat. After struggling for a long while, their brains were finally fried under the heat.
The cluster bomb displayed its maximum effectiveness against the zombies when they were all packed together. The moment one exploded, over ten thousand zombies were blasted into nothing.
The zombies seemed to have been shocked by the might of the cluster bombs, as at the next instant, the remaining hundred thousand zombies quickly fled in the direction they came from.
Yue Zhong watched them and frowned slightly: "We didn't manage to wipe out the Z-type. Or in other words, the Z2 inside might still be alive."
If the leader had been killed, the remaining zombie horde would definitely have split and fled in different directions. However, in this situation, they had fled orderly. It was obvious that the Z2 was still in command.
"Leader! Do we chase?" The pilot beside Yue Zhong asked excitedly.
Enemies that cluster together as foolishly as zombies were rare in the apocalypse, and it was the best target for the cluster bombs. That was why the pilot was eager to let the zombies have another round.
Yue Zhong thought for a while before ordering: "Chase, but only maintain the pressure. Use the machine guns to fire at them!"
The Z2 already possessed intelligence, this time, they didn't manage to finish it off in one strike, to find it among the sea of zombies would be extremely hard. However, Yue Zhong knew that he could make use of its death-fearing nature.
If the Z2 was safe, it would definitely not bother about anything else and command the rest of the horde to attack. However, the moment it felt danger, it would abandon everything else to run. It would even activate a troop to protect its own safety. It was very like a human in that sense.
Under Yue Zhong's orders, the 4 Thunder Fighters continued to fire volley after volley into the escaping horde. From time to time, there would a cluster bomb that dropped on the zombie horde, obliterating a large number at one go.
With their chase, the zombies continued to escape.
Until the Thunder Fighters were about to run out of fuel, Yue Zhong then led the Thunder Fighters back to Sakura Town.
"Long live! Long live!!"
"Long live!!"
When the news of Yue Zhong repelling the hundred thousand zombies from Yama County broke, the survivors of Sakura Town instantly went into a joyful uproar. All the soldiers and people came together to celebrate the victory.
At first, they had despaired and lost all hope. Hearing that the zombies have been sent back, they were once again filled with hope.
In the evening, within the Shimazu Clan, the upper echelons of the Shimazu Family gathered together, with all sorts of sumptuous dishes on the table.
These family members looked at Shimazu Mina and Yue Zhong sitting together with a complicated look on their faces. They had witnessed the fury and what this man was capable of. He was someone that had single-handedly dealt with 7 Thunder Fighters. He had also repel the advance of those zombies. The survivors were filled with awe and veneration towards him now. This god-like character was the head of their clan, how could not be amazed. However, while they relished the security, they abhorred the potential of Yue Zhong stealing the Shimazu Clan's power.
Of course, the Shimazu Clan didn't know that Yue Zhong had just repel the hundreds and thousands of zombies, and not truly kill the Z-Type. They didn't even kill all of the zombies. After some time, the zombies would still gather and come back.
After dinner, Shimazu Mina and a few other key members of the clan invited Yue Zhong and his subordinates into a room. Shimazu Mina's eyes sparkled as she smiled sweetly at Yue Zhong before dropping a bomb: "Otto-sama, are you interested in the Yokosuka base?"
(Yokosuka: Port and Navy Base in Tokyo bay)