Mystery Paradise: Wishing Power Demon

...

On the outskirts of M City, around the Air Force base perimeter.

This had already become a heavily guarded war front, with several layers of barbed wire strung along the gravel path from the highway to the base fence. Soldiers, armed and vigilant, leaned against sandbag barriers, waiting for the enemy’s arrival.

At this moment, the sun had just risen at dawn, and fortunately, the weather was clear and cloud-free today. With the help of the golden morning light, the entire desert landscape was visible.

"Yawn..." Taverley rubbed his dry eyes and looked dispiritedly at his squad leader Harry, "Sir, just who the hell are we supposed to fight?"

Their squad had been woken from their sleep late last night.

Unlike previous surprise drills, they were not given any mission brief; instead, they were bewilderingly armed and sent into the Air Force base. They first stayed in the airport for several hours, then were moved to the outskirts on the west side of the base and directly into sandbag positions.

As the troops responsible for defending the base, their status was undoubtedly the lowest. Being ordered around was common, but there ought to be a reason, right? In fact, up until now, Taverley had only heard one command, "Eliminate all suspicious moving targets; this is not a drill." As for how exactly the targets were suspicious, the senior officers had not offered any explanation.

He also noticed something odd: only their ragtag crew was in action, while the Air Force units were exceedingly peaceful. Not only had the airport not launched a single aircraft, but there wasn’t even the sound of engines warming up.

If it wasn’t a drill and there was no need to deploy the Air Force, that meant the enemy must be pretty weak, huh? So weak that a few dozen rifles could easily take care of them.

"Maybe it’s a civil war that’s broken out," another soldier named George suggested, chewing gum, "There’s that movie that just premiered recently... Maybe life is imitating art, and our great president has decided to rise against injustices in the legal system."

"Shut the fuck up, all of you," Captain Harry cursed, "Look what’s behind us? It’s all fucking cannons, not just army guns, but bona fide naval guns! Have you ever seen naval guns at an Air Force squadron base? They brought over so many in one night; I haven’t seen logistics this efficient in a long time. To keep those lazy bums busy all night long, there must have been a direct order from above!"

"Shit, really!" exclaimed George as he turned his head and squinted in surprise, "Where did they bring these from?"

It was then that Taverley realized that the piles of dark shapes they guarded at night were actually naval guns of various models. To accommodate their large ammunition supply systems, temporary square steel frames had been constructed underneath them. Not only that, but he also spotted several multibarreled close-in weapon systems typically used on warships for anti-aircraft purposes — not that they couldn’t target humans, but doing so would be brutally cruel; getting caught on camera would surely become a sensational news item all over the internet.

"Who knows, maybe it’s old stock, or maybe they were dismantled from warships." The captain shrugged, "But you definitely don’t need that stuff against civilians; our enemy is undoubtedly out of the ordinary."

"Then why not call in the Air Force? We’ve got F22s stationed here, after all."

"That’s why I’m saying they’re out of the ordinary. You can’t use planes to shoot birds, can you?"

Just then, a piercing alarm sounded within the base!

"The enemy is coming!"

Harry let out a yell and cocked his rifle, switching off the safety.

Taverley’s sleepiness vanished almost instantly; he followed suit, disengaging his safety and peering ahead beyond the sandbags. But all he saw in the open fields was emptiness, without any anomalies.

"Guys, look up!" Suddenly, a soldier shouted.

Up in the sky?

Taverley raised his binoculars and looked toward the western sky. This time he found the targets — they looked like several oddly-shaped Iron Birds, with boxy bodies and flapping wings on the sides. Their flying speed was rather slow, at an estimated pace of 40 or 50 kilometers per hour.

Before they could recover from their surprise, the cannons in the rear suddenly fired!

A few rapid booms were heard, and the sky five or six kilometers away burst into brilliant fireworks.

It was a standard airburst shell!

When the smoke cleared, Taverley looked through the binoculars again and saw that the targets had disappeared without a trace.

"Just like that?" George whistled, "Using naval guns to hit something the size of a palm, isn’t this a waste of taxpayers’ money?"

"Don’t let your guard down, there’s movement on the ground too!" Harry warned.

Several crawling mechanical bodies appeared on the horizon, using the rugged rubble for cover as if someone was controlling them.

"So today’s live-fire exercise is target practice?"

A soldier’s sharp comment drew a burst of laughter from everyone.

Taverley waited until they crawled closer before firing—at a distance of about three hundred meters. Despite the small creatures’ agility, they could not reach the front line under the multiple lines of fire.

Then the anti-aircraft guns fired again, wiping out the second wave of invaders several kilometers away.

After several rounds like this, everyone had completely relaxed, even the squad leader lit a cigarette.

However, a question also formed in Taverley’s mind—why did the aerial enemies need to be defended with naval guns, while the ground ones could be dealt with using their rifles? Couldn’t they deploy a few armored fighting vehicles to take on the enemy? Those had longer range and heavier firepower, able to shoot from over a thousand meters away, which was far stronger than the little "water guns" they had in their hands.

And besides, who manufactured these oddly shaped mechanical units? Why did the 49th Squad base have to treat them as formidable foes? Could it be...?

By noon, similar "attacks" had occurred seven or eight times.

Apart from Iron Birds and mechanical spiders, drones, remote-controlled toy cars, and balancing vehicles had also become "invading enemies."

Such an odd phenomenon naturally sparked lively discussions among the soldiers, but no matter how much they debated, they couldn’t come to any conclusion—this kind of thing was not uncommon for the lower-ranked soldiers; as long as the higher-ups kept their lips sealed, they would never know the true nature of the incident.

As the sun reached its zenith, Taverley suddenly heard a series of deep roaring sounds from behind.

He turned his head, and a chill ran up his arms. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Several pitch-black transport planes appeared in the direction of the east, hurtling toward the base at an astonishing speed. Their markings were distinct, clearly indicating they were their own C-5 Galaxy transport planes, also the largest operational military transport aircraft. Even from tens of kilometers away, their huge wings were clearly visible.

The Air Force base was used to planes taking off and landing, and they were accustomed to using transport planes for supplies, but the attitude of these planes was anything but normal—their angle of descent was far too steep! A dive at such a speed could easily cause the aircraft to disintegrate, and even if it didn’t break apart, this pitching angle would definitely not be suitable for landing.

Recalling those drones that flew like moths to a flame, Taverley suddenly felt an overwhelming fear.

The people at the base seemed to have noticed the situation as well, several cannons began to turn, their barrels tilting upward—only this time, their firing was far less decisive than before.

As if hesitating for dozens of seconds, the naval guns finally began to shoot, but the C-5s were not like those toys; they couldn’t be vaporized by the shells. Even if the 127 mm shells could rip through the wings and fuselage of the planes, their shattered bodies still equated to meteors that did not lessen in momentum, and there wasn’t just one meteor!

As the frontline soldiers watched, the planes, trailing countless fragmented parts and engulfed in rolling flames, crashed onto the base’s airfield, with a large amount of cargo bouncing out from inside them, scattering everywhere. When those "cargos" stood up, Taverley realized they were all mechanical dogs.

Mechanical dogs?

These military toys, not even equipped with weapons, how much trouble could they cause them? Surely they couldn’t be killed by these things!

Watching the still mobile mechanical dogs scatter in all directions, Captain Harry suddenly murmured, "My God..."

Taverley followed his gaze and saw that two close-in weapons systems had somehow lowered their barrels and turned towards their side of the front line.

"Damn, you’ve got to be kidding me..."

Before he could finish speaking, a series of violent shots tore through the sandbags beside him, piercing his body completely!