Arc of Fire

This is Wang Zhong.

“Intercept as usual,” Wang Zhong said, “exposing the position of Divine Arrow is not important, it can be moved. After the battle at Upper Peniye, Monk Yeca Neiko should be quite experienced now.”

Yegorov: “He’s indeed very experienced, prepared trucks especially for transferring, and even connected each alternative Divine Arrow position with telephones.”

Wang Zhong nodded: “Then intercept! After the interception, run immediately!”

As he spoke, he picked up the phone: “Connect to the current position of God’s Arrow Company.”

Two seconds later, the voice of Ludmila came from the phone: “Hello?”

Wang Zhong: “Why is it you? Where is Monk Yeca Neiko?”

“The Monk has gone to perform rites for the deceased. What’s up?”

“Can the Divine Arrow squad fire now?”

“Yes! Enemy aircraft coming, right? Leave it to me, I’ll shoot it down! I can recognize the enemy’s reconnaissance aircraft even with my eyes closed!”

Wang Zhong always felt as if Ludmila was forcing a smile, deliberately acting cheerful. Could it be an illusion?

Had something happened?

Wang Zhong really wanted to ask, since this was his almost fiancée, but he could not inquire due to the urgency of military affairs.

So he said: “I’ll leave it to you! The enemy aircraft will be arriving soon!”

“Mhm!” At least this last sound, the girl sounded quite spirited.

After hanging up the phone, Wang Zhong immediately switched his perspective to survey the situation.

The first thing he saw was the high-flying Do 215—hmm?

Wang Zhong observed that Do 215, feeling that this plane was larger than the standard Do 215. Could this possibly be a Do 217?

And it didn’t seem like it was here for reconnaissance. With its sluggish speed, it looked like it was carrying bombs.

Reconnaissance Do planes should not carry bombs to allow them to fly higher and faster.

As Wang Zhong was puzzling over this, the Focke-Wulf Fw 189 reconnaissance aircraft entered his field of vision.

Before Wang Zhong could get a clear look, Divine Arrow was already soaring into the sky.

However, the reaction of this 189 was strange, as if its pilot had been prepared all along and immediately bailed out with a parachute.

Other reconnaissance aircraft would struggle a bit, like trying to enter the blind spot of Divine Arrow’s praying hands, but this one just gave up!

Wang Zhong had a bad feeling, but could not articulate what was wrong, until he saw the suspected Do 217 twin-engine heavy bomber in the sky and what it dropped.

————

The Prosen Royal 55th Bomber Squadron’s tenth squadron commander’s plane was tasked today with dropping an experimental weapon.

In fact, this squadron had been transferred to the Kingdom of Bavaria in Prosen before the Carolingian campaign to participate in the testing of experimental weapons.

This was the empire’s grand attempt to replace the divine with technology; its success would prove that the gods of inferior races, too, were negligible false deities.

Now, the day had come for this great, symbolic weapon to be tested in actual combat, and its target was none other than the “Miracle” that the false god used to deceive the world!

The observer shouted: “Divine Arrow launched, Divine Arrow trail confirmed!”

The radio-guidance operator: “Visual on target, guidance preparation complete!”

The observer: “Course parameters input complete!”

The mechanical computer installed in the bomber’s guidance office quickly completed the calculations and spit out the course adjustment parameters.

The squadron leader of the tenth squadron tore off the paper with the course parameters, glanced at it, and personally pushed the control stick to turn the aircraft towards the calculated course.

The observer: “Aiming complete, 20 seconds to bomb release window!”

The squadron leader pressed the timer installed beside the operator’s seat. As the timer hit zero, he shouted: “For the empire! For the Emperor!”

As the timer reached zero, he pressed the bomb release button, and the heavy radio-guided glide bomb left the rack under the fuselage.

A small drogue parachute helped the bomb adjust its attitude.

The guidance operator reported: “Drogue parachute discarded, bomb tail light observed! Beginning radio guidance!”

At this moment, within the guide’s field of vision, the tail light of the bomb emitted a very conspicuous glow.

————

Ludmila and the members of God’s Arrow Company sprinted down the stairs to the ground and climbed onto the GAZ truck that had been prepared earlier.

The only driver of God’s Arrow Company was smoking when he saw everyone coming down so frantically, he laughed and said, “What’s the rush? Are the Prussians about to attack us right now?”

Ludmila, “The enemy has a reconnaissance plane in the sky. We’ve been exposed. An attack will come soon, it could be artillery or bombers.”

“Hey, it won’t be that fast. Plus, look, Yeca Neiko is still over there praying for the girl who died! Wait a moment…”

Ludmila grabbed the driver’s collar, pulled him out of the driver’s seat, and threw him onto the ground, then she climbed in and deftly started the truck.

The driver, seeing stars after being thrown, still didn’t take it seriously: “What’s the rush? These past few days, I’ve been watching that brigadier, and I don’t think he’s all that impressive! It’s just that…”

No sooner had he spoken than the dome of the Anatoliy Bathhouse was suddenly smashed by something, as if someone had cracked an eggshell.

The next moment, an explosion inflated the bathhouse like a balloon and then with a pop, it burst.

The blast wave picked up the driver from behind, threw him against the stone wall on the other side, twisting his neck into an unhealthy angle in an instant.

Yeca Neiko, who had been conducting the service, also flipped over and lay prone on the ground.

The shockwave also caused Ludmila’s GAZ truck to sway erratically, as if it had guzzled five large bottles of vodka.

In her haste, Ludmila hit the brakes, which resulted in the truck flipping over and sliding a whole five meters.

When all settled.

Ludmila struggled to crawl out of the driver’s seat and stood up, covering her scratched right hand, looking at the bathhouse that had been reduced to rubble.

Yeca Neiko—now a deputy knight—also got up, joining her in looking at the bathhouse.

Yeca Neiko, “What happened? I didn’t hear the sound of enemy planes. What blasted us all of a sudden?”

Ludmila looked at Yeca Neiko, “You’ll need to find a new driver, one who will follow orders.”

————

Wang Zhong was deeply shaken.

After confirming that Ludmila was alright, he started to ponder.

He recognized the thing that had just been dropped from Route 217, the Fritz X radio-controlled bomb!

Could it be that Prosen was stimulated by the Divine Power guided weapons of the Eastern Holy Church and the Lutheran Church, resulting in the development of their guided weapons outpacing Earth’s Sturmtiger?

Or is it that “Jude” has abundant resources, thereby advancing their scientific research faster than Sturmtiger?

No, that’s not right. Prosen was still using a mix of short-barreled Panzer IVs and early model Panzer IIIs; it didn’t seem like their technology far surpassed that of Sturmtiger’s contemporaries.

They must have seen other people’s guided weapons and went all out to develop one of their own.

Now the question is, how many of these do they have? If there are many, then the fertilizer plant he was at is also not safe; one hit from that thing and everything would go sky-high.

Damn, how can this be fought? The opponent is Jude with higher technology… Can we only rely on Divine Power? The problem is that there isn’t much Divine Power either, only a total of ten Divine Arrows, and nearly half have been fired already.

Wang Zhong decided not to think too much for now—overthinking was pointless, the ship will go straight when it reaches the bridge.

He exited the overhead mode and picked up the phone, “Connect with Brother Peter. Brother, did you note the sound characteristics of the Route 217 overhead? I’m telling you, it carries a heavy guided bomb. If you detect the same sound footprint next time, notify me immediately.”

Considering the threat of this weapon, they might have to take it down using the Divine Arrow, as the frontline lacked the MiG-3 high-altitude fighter needed to reach Route 217.

————

At this time, on the Prussian Army’s side.

The communications staff officer ran over from the radio vehicle, saluting Major General Randolph, “Report! The division’s artillery just passed through Karlinovka and is now selecting artillery positions!”

Major General Randolph clapped his hands together, “Excellent! Perfect timing! Give them two hours to set up their positions and get ready to open fire!”

He pulled out his pocket watch to check the time, “We’ll start artillery preparation at 4:30 am tomorrow. It will take us three hours to clear a path through the minefield, and at 7:30 am, artillery fire will begin extending towards the enemy positions.

“We plan to deploy an armored grenadier battalion, plus two reinforced Panzer IV tank platoons, to launch a probing attack!

“The enemy will certainly use heavy artillery to stop us. Tell that damned Air Force, no matter what, they must send a reconnaissance aircraft aloft! Even if they cannot dive on the enemy’s positions, they must help our division’s 15cm heavy artillery eliminate those annoying B4s!”