I can upgrade the shelter-Chapter 678 - 576: A Deeper Crisis

"Damn it, how did these alien bastards dig under the Honghu?" In the rear command center, an officer with a general's star on his shoulder was cursing: "With the troop deployment in the Honghu Region, it simply can't hold off an attack of this magnitude!"

In fact, it's not just the Honghu Region's defense line that can't hold. At this time, it's difficult to find any defense line along the coast of the Dongting Lake that can withstand such a dual assault.

The city where Chen Xin is located, with its empty city left after the evacuation, can withstand this level of attack through urban warfare with the alien creatures, but other regions' defenses can only rely on heavy firepower and frontline troops to hold them off.

Chen Xin, also in the command center at this time, heard the general's complaint and looked at the map before saying, "They must have dug through the aquifer; the underground water isn't completely frozen, making the soil relatively soft and easier to dig through. For these aliens, who care nothing about the cost, digging through is no problem at all."

"Is there any way to curb their offensive?" The general asked Chen Xin, his long-standing extraordinary performance kindling expectations.

"Have you tried bunker bombs? Or firing missiles into those tunnels?" Chen Xin suggested his ideas.

"The Air Force and Rocket Forces are trying, but the method isn't very effective." The general shook his head. The methods Chen Xin proposed had already been tried elsewhere: "Although it can indeed collapse tunnels, those alien creatures don't care about being buried. They quickly dig through collapsed areas, or they'll excavate in other directions if necessary. Collapsing tunnels is just a temporary block."

"Is that so...that would be troublesome. To solve it once and for all, unless we can collapse the entire Honghu underground, making it impossible for the aliens to dig through in a short time, it's tough to change the current stalemate." Chen Xin nodded, acknowledging that collapsing the entire Honghu underground was feasible, but it's clearly not a decision he and the general alone could make.

The general understood Chen Xin's implication, thought for a moment, and said, "I'll apply to the higher-ups to use nuclear weapons!"

The military had previously considered using nuclear weapons to solve the alien problem, but concerns about the ramifications of using nuclear weapons and the uncertainty they could effectively kill underground aliens prevented a decision.

Now both the general and Chen Xin understood that to prevent aliens from emerging under Honghu, the entire lakebed must be collapsed to thoroughly block these tunnels.

And to achieve this, only nuclear weapons could deliver the necessary destructive power.

After all, alien creatures have just started to appear in the Honghu Region. Collapsing the lakebed still offers a chance to stop them.

Moreover, the Honghu is much smaller than Dongting Lake, requiring less yield to collapse the lakebed, and tactical nuclear weapons could serve this purpose.

However, as the general prepared to apply to the higher-ups for tactical nuclear weapons, Chen Xin was concerned about other issues.

"Do we have an underground water distribution map of the entire Dongting Lake Region?" Chen Xin asked a nearby staff officer.

"We don't have it, we'll need to find one," the staff officer replied after searching through the available maps in the command center.

Chen Xin shook his head when he heard this, not asking him to find a map but instead turning his gaze to the map displayed on the command center's large screen, frowning in contemplation.

After a moment of hesitation, Chen Xin still turned to the staff officer and said, "Check the surrounding areas. I suspect the aliens are attacking more than just the Honghu Region."

"Attacking more than just the Honghu Region? Why do you say so, Academician Chen?" The general voiced his concern upon hearing Chen Xin's statement.

Just dealing with the Honghu Region's situation has already impacted the entire defense line. If there's another breach, the general feared it would be indefensible.

"Since aliens can dig to Honghu along the aquifer, they can naturally spread to other parts of the Dongting Lake water system," Chen Xin explained, pointing at several tributaries flowing into Dongting Lake on the map.

"Ah! This!" The general was shocked by the direction Chen Xin pointed out, hastily instructing the staff officer, "Quick, issue a warning as Academician Chen suggests. All cities surrounding the Dongting Lake water system must be inspected!"

The problem Chen Xin feared was clearly that aliens would dig the aquifer along tributaries flowing into Dongting Lake, spreading to other locations.

If this were true, the defense lines set up by the military along the Dongting Lake coastlines would instantly become meaningless, like the bypassed Maginot Line—nothing but a useless facade.

Moreover, Chen Xin's concern was likely to become a reality, not just an unfounded fear.

After all, if aliens could launch an attack in the Honghu Region, who could guarantee they wouldn't attack in other directions?

Watching the staff officer deliver the warnings, both Chen Xin and the general felt a sense of impending crisis, as if sitting on pins and needles.

Of course, they couldn't just sit back and wait. Although the Honghu Defense Line under attack was stabilizing after dispatching reinforcements, that obviously did not solve the problem.

"Academician Chen, besides using nuclear weapons to collapse the entire Honghu lakebed, are there other methods?" the general asked Chen Xin.

Faced with this question, Chen Xin hesitated for a moment before reluctantly saying, "There are, but they are even more difficult than deploying nuclear weapons."

"What are those methods?" The general quickly asked, hearing Chen Xin's response.

Given the current situation, difficulty is irrelevant—what matters is solving the problem, regardless of how challenging it might be.

To this, Chen Xin could only shake his head and said, "Based on previous dissections and studies of the alien creatures, we can preliminarily determine that the aliens are commanded by upper-level nodes. If we can deploy a force to locate and eliminate this upper-level node, it's possible to halt the enemy's assault."

"Isn't that a decapitation strike?" The general realized, recognizing it as the decapitation tactic often used in modern warfare by special forces attacking enemy command centers, which stirred his eagerness.

However, Chen Xin shook his head again, helplessly saying, "Decapitation tactics are indeed practical, but the problem is, we don't know where the aliens' upper-level nodes are, nor do we have a special forces unit capable of executing a decapitation operation. This method is clearly impractical."