The explosions merged together into one continuous wall of fire.

For several seconds, the drone feed became almost unreadable from the sheer scale of destruction.

Even inside the command center, several operators stared silently at the screen.

The highways south of Manila no longer looked like roads.

They looked like active warzones.

Entire sections burned from repeated artillery impacts while wrecked civilian vehicles littered every lane. Some had been thrown upside down by the HIMARS strikes. Others continued burning, their fuel tanks igniting secondary explosions inside the chaos below.

And still, the swarm kept moving.

Adrian kept his eyes fixed on the tactical display while fresh artillery trajectories updated across the map.

"How many rounds fired so far?" he asked.

One of the artillery officers checked quickly.

"Combined count, sir, over three hundred 155mm shells and approximately one hundred twenty HIMARS rockets expended."

Adrian nodded once.

The amount of explosives they were throwing into the swarm already exceeded what most countries would use in a full-scale battlefield engagement.

And yet it still didn’t feel like enough.

"Continue cycling fire missions," Adrian ordered. "I want overlapping kill zones every five kilometers."

"Yes, sir."

Outside Basa Air Base, the artillery crews looked exhausted already.

The M777 batteries had not stopped firing for nearly an hour.

The barrels glowed faintly from sustained bombardment while loaders continued hauling fresh shells through smoke and dust-covered firing pits.

"Round up!"

"Loaded!"

"Fire!"

Boom.

Another 155mm shell screamed into the sky.

The recoil slammed through the howitzer frame while nearby crews instinctively braced from the pressure wave. Spent shell casings piled beside the firing pits while ammunition handlers dragged more crates forward from transport trucks.

One artilleryman wiped sweat from his face with a filthy sleeve.

"...Feels like we’re trying to stop a damn ocean."

His section chief didn’t even look at him.

"Then keep firing until the ocean disappears."

Further back near the hidden rocket sectors, the HIMARS launchers continued repositioning after every volley. Their wheels crushed gravel and dirt while crews rapidly uploaded new coordinates from drone surveillance.

The launch pods elevated again.

"Target package uploaded."

"Ripple pattern confirmed."

The launcher commander inhaled once.

"Fire."

The HIMARS batteries unleashed another devastating volley.

Dozens of rockets blasted upward almost simultaneously, the backblast illuminating entire sections of the night around the launch sites. The rockets climbed rapidly before curving southward toward the advancing swarm.

Inside the command center, the countdown began immediately.

"Ten seconds to impact."

"Five."

"Three."

Then—

The roads vanished beneath explosions again.

This time the rockets struck deeper into the rear sections of the swarm where the infected had compressed together after earlier bombardments forced them back toward the highways.

The effect was catastrophic.

Drone feeds showed entire blocks erupting into fire as the rockets detonated among tens of thousands of infected. Buildings partially collapsed from the pressure waves while burning debris blasted across intersections.

A fuel station caught fire.

Then exploded.

The fireball consumed an entire section of roadway instantly.

"Direct hits confirmed!"

The tactical display fluctuated violently as huge portions of the red mass disappeared temporarily beneath the bombardment.

One analyst leaned closer toward his monitor.

"Sir... we’re actually cutting their numbers."

Adrian didn’t respond immediately.

He kept watching.

The swarm had definitely thinned compared to earlier.

The dense red concentration spreading northward was no longer completely solid now. Gaps existed across several sections after the repeated rocket strikes.

But every time artillery stopped hitting one lane—

More infected filled it again.

Like blood flowing back into an open wound.

"That’s the problem," Adrian finally said. "There’s too many bodies behind the ones we kill."

Another operator suddenly looked up from the drone feed.

"Sir, new movement patterns."

The tactical overlay shifted again.

The swarm was adapting once more.

Instead of remaining tightly packed on the highways, portions of the infected began spreading through open terrain, villages, and agricultural fields to reduce the effectiveness of the bombardment.

"Those things are dispersing," the analyst reported.

Adrian narrowed his eyes.

"Smart enough to adapt pressure."

"Or instinct," another officer added.

"Doesn’t matter," Adrian replied. "Adjust firing spread."

The artillery command immediately recalculated.

This time the M777 batteries began firing airburst and fragmentation patterns into the open terrain surrounding the highways instead of concentrating solely on the roads.

Moments later, the new bombardment landed.

The sky above the southern fields erupted repeatedly as airburst artillery shells detonated above the infected formations. Fragmentation rained downward across huge areas, shredding the scattered zombie groups attempting to bypass the highways.

The infected had nowhere safe to move anymore.

Roads burned.

Fields exploded.

Towns collapsed under artillery fire.

The entire southern approach toward Basa Air Base slowly transformed into a gigantic kill zone.

Back near the artillery sectors, the continuous firing began taking its toll.

One of the M777 barrels glowed visibly from heat.

"Barrel temperature climbing!"

"Swap gun rotation!"

Fresh artillery pieces rolled into active firing positions while overheated guns were temporarily cooled using emergency procedures.

Nearby, soldiers distributed water bottles and ammunition simultaneously across the firing pits.

Nobody rested.

Nobody stopped moving.

The bombardment simply continued.

Hours passed like that.

Shell after shell.

Rocket after rocket.

The sky itself seemed to shake continuously from the nonstop artillery fire.

"I guess we should deploy one of our bombers to see their effectiveness," Adrian said. "Scrambe the B1 Lancer."

Inside the command center, several operators immediately turned toward the runway feeds.

"Copy, Command. Alerting bomber crews now."

Outside Basa Air Base, another section of the airfield suddenly came alive.

Massive hardened hangar doors slowly opened one after another, revealing the dark silhouettes of the strategic bombers hidden inside.

The Rockwell B-1 Lancer looked enormous beneath the floodlights.

Long swept wings.

Massive fuselage.

Heavy engines mounted beneath the body like a beast built purely for destruction.

Ground crews sprinted around the aircraft while fuel lines disconnected and weapon loaders finished securing the internal bomb bays.

One crew chief slapped the side of the bomber before signaling upward.

"You’re good to go!"

The engines ignited moments later.

The roar rolled across the air base like distant thunder, louder and deeper than the fighters earlier. Heat shimmer distorted the air behind the bombers while the runway lights reflected across their dark surfaces.

Inside the cockpit of the lead bomber, the pilot adjusted his headset slightly.

"Lancer One ready for taxi."