Battle on the Insect Planet (3): Disagreement

“Don’t worry, please contact us immediately if anything happens.”

Xia Ruize’s comfort echoed in Gao Hexuan’s mind. He looked at the metal arm blocking the window of his mecha, silently took a step back, and returned to his original position to continue studying the network.

Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian followed the new formation and moved quickly through the forest with the soldiers in front of them, approaching the place where the previous movement occurred.

If the difficulty of driving a mech on a flat and wide sandy ground was 1, then the difficulty of running in a jungle full of vines was 10. If you could not flexibly control the mech to avoid most obstacles, the forward speed would be greatly slowed down.

Fortunately, Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian were at the back of the team, and the soldiers in front had already solved some obstacles and widened the road. They also actively imitated the control movements of other soldiers to make their own movements and the movements of the mecha more suitable for the jungle.

Both of them had super strong control over their bodies, and they greatly improved their proficiency in operating the mecha in a very short period of time, and did not fall behind.

After a rapid march, the sixteen rescue mechas arrived at the scene in less than three minutes.

After Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian stood still, they saw the situation on the battlefield ahead through the gaps between the trees. They saw a giant insect more than five meters tall and ten meters long swinging its sharp forelimbs to chop at the mecha soldiers led by Liu Wennian.

The first group of soldiers selected by Liu Wennian to enter the jungle were basically the strongest group in the entire team. Even so, the wreckage of three mechas were already scattered on the ground. Liu Wennian led the remaining mechas to dodge the attacks of the giant insects while attacking the enemy with all their might.

Although the insects were huge in size, they were very agile and fast. Whether they were sprinting on flat ground, climbing on tree trunks or jumping between branches, they whizz by like a gust of wind.

Even with the help of the aiming assistance program, it was difficult for the soldiers to aim their guns at the fast-moving giant insects. Instead, the giant insects’ sharp forelimbs would make a harsh sound of metal collision when they hit the mecha.

The arrival of the rescue made the front troops who were fighting hard very excited. Liu Wennian quickly took over the command and ordered the supporting soldiers to disperse their formation to distract the enemy’s attention.

Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian quietly retreated a distance and carefully observed the battle between the giant insects and the human mecha soldiers.

As for the huge size, they had seen wild animals that were tens or even hundreds of meters tall in the wild world. The size of this insect did not surprise them. However, Xia Ruize stared at the insect in the center of the battlefield and felt a sense of oppression, as if there was some danger hidden.

He did not ignore his own perception, so he temporarily gave up joining the battle.

At his lover’s reminder, Cheng Huaiqian did not rush to join the battle. The two stayed at the edge and watched the sixteen mechas in the center of the battlefield cooperate with each other. Using human wisdom and powerful weapons, it took ten minutes to finally split the giant insect into countless pieces and win the battle.

As soon as the battle was over, someone went to check on the four mechas destroyed in the battle. Two of the pilots survived, but they were seriously injured.

“Enter the insect’s data into the database and try to report back to command.”

Liu Wennian, who had been fighting on the front line, spoke in the internal channel with a slightly tired voice. His mecha window passed over the direction where Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian were, and he did not say much about the eight mechas that had only watched from the beginning to the end of the previous battle and did not participate in the battle.

Liu Wennian had always felt that the army’s random drawing of lots to form a pioneering team was a joke.

Among the people randomly selected, some had been operating mechas for years to train and fight, while others had been sitting in offices for years and only touched mechas when they joined the army. Their combat experience was not at the same level at all. Forcing a group of unfamiliar and hugely different soldiers to quickly adapt to each other in a dangerous environment was simply irresponsible for the lives of all.

No matter how much Liu Wennian despised such a system in his heart, this was the reality. Before this unreasonable random lottery system was to be abolished, Liu Wennian, who was unfortunately selected, had to act according to the regulations.

On the spaceship, Liu Wennian had already made plans in his mind. He didn’t care what others did. All he had to do was to quickly select reliable comrades from the complex group of soldiers, build a reliable team, and try his best to successfully complete the exploration mission.

As for those who failed to recognize the situation, refused to comply with orders, and had no ability to protect themselves, he was not prepared to pay much attention to them. They should give up as soon as possible.

Therefore, Liu Wennian was not angry at all about the fact that eight mechas just watched from beginning to end and did not participate in the battle. If they did not show their coordination and combat strength, they would not be worthy of being rescued the next time they encountered danger.

Liu Wennian completely ignored Xia Ruize and the others, and assigned tasks to the fifteen mechas that followed his orders. He ordered two of the mechas to evacuate along the original route with the wounded, while the others followed him and continued to advance deeper into the jungle.

“Captain!” Xia Ruize suddenly called Liu Wennian on the internal channel. He was aware of the other party’s attitude of neglect, but he still reminded him: “I have a feeling that if we continue to go deeper into the jungle, we will encounter great danger. Should we act more cautiously?”

“No need, take a three-minute break as planned and continue on.”

Liu Wennian replied in a cold voice.

“Tsk…” A young soldier’s voice appeared in the channel, with a mocking tone: “Brother, have you forgotten why we are here?

If the pioneers fail to complete the exploration mission assigned by the command, they will not only not receive any reward, but will also be punished! Do you think we want to continue moving forward? If we cannot explore a certain range of the map today, do you believe that we will not even have supplies when we return?”

“I haven’t forgotten. What I mean is, can the plan to go deeper be more stable? For example, gather all the team members and slow down the exploration?” Xia Ruize was not angry, and continued to make suggestions in a calm tone.

“I think you are a new recruit. Haha, it’s okay. There are people out there who are even more useless than you. You don’t have to worry about being the last one. But remember, if we really gather everyone together, our team’s combat effectiveness will not increase but decrease!”

Another laughing voice joined in and refuted Xia Ruize.

“Anyway, I feel very bad…” Just as Xia Ruize was about to continue his argument, he suddenly raised his voice and exclaimed, “What’s 32 degrees southwest?”

Hearing Xia Ruize’s exclamation, everyone subconsciously looked in the direction he pointed, but they only saw a dense jungle. The overlapping layers of plants blocked the situation more than ten meters away, and nothing unusual could be seen.

“I advise you to retreat immediately!”

Without waiting for anyone to question him, Xia Ruize shouted, turned around and rushed in the direction he came from. Cheng Huaiqian turned around and evacuated almost at the same time.

Inspired by the actions of the two men, the other two mechas hesitated for a moment, turned around and ran after them.

Liu Wennian and the remaining soldiers were stunned. The soldiers who had previously refuted Xia Ruize were also stunned and murmured sarcastically: “This is the first time I see a deserter being so self-righteous, ha!”

“Ignore those who are irrelevant and let’s move on.”

Liu Wennian calmly concluded this farce, but before he was about to set off, he subconsciously glanced in the direction Xia Ruize had pointed earlier, and his expression suddenly froze.

He saw an abnormal sound coming from the originally quiet jungle 32 degrees southwest, and the branches and leaves were shaking more and more violently. Such a familiar prelude made Liu Wennian’s pupils shrink. Before the giant insect suddenly rushed out, the forest was also in such a strange state. Could it be that there was another giant insect?

“Alert!”

Almost as soon as he gave the order, Liu Wennian saw two giant insects leap out of the jungle.

Two? A little tricky, but manageable.

Many thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant, but before Liu Wennian gave the order to cooperate in the battle, two more insects rushed out of the forest.

“Retreat!”

With this order, Liu Wennian’s usually calm voice suddenly rose to a pitch that was almost breaking, and he issued a sharp warning to his soldiers.

As someone who had personally fought against the giant insects, Liu Wennian knew best that four giant insects were beyond the limit of their team’s ability to cope with.

The soldiers who had been on alert all the time turned around quickly and ran in the direction they came from after receiving the order. Their reaction was not slow, but the giant insects were even faster. The giant insect running in the front jumped up with all its strength, raised its giant forelimbs high, and leaped towards the human mecha.

Multiple high-energy electromagnetic shock guns launched attacks at the same time. The dazzling electromagnetic light beams formed a dense net and covered the giant insect cage in mid-air.

The giant insect couldn’t change direction in time in mid-air and plunged headfirst into the electromagnetic net. With a weird “sizzling” sound, most of its body shattered and fell heavily to the ground.

The threat that flew overhead was resolved, but the escape speed of several soldiers who counterattacked subconsciously was also slowed down. In the blink of an eye, more giant insects flew towards them.

The young soldiers who had mocked Xia Ruize earlier looked at the screen of the mecha and saw three giant insects flying towards him from the left, right and top of his head at the same time. Three more insects rushed out from the jungle in the distance. He immediately understood what Xia Ruize meant by “feeling very bad”. This was more than just a bad feeling. This was a rhythm to send him to heaven!

Just as the giant insect’s shadow had already been cast on the mecha, and the young soldier’s gun had not yet turned to aim at the target, and he was so anxious that his eyes were bloodshot, he heard “whoosh” and “whoosh” sounds of breaking through the air. The young soldier was stunned, and then he saw on the screen that the three insects surrounding him and the two insects surrounding his teammates were all knocked away and fell heavily behind them.

“Retreat, retreat! Retreat at full speed!!!”

Liu Wennian’s urgent voice was heard in the channel.

The young soldier didn’t even dare to look back to find out what was going on. He seized the precious time that the insects behind him had not caught up with him and ran as fast as he could.

At this moment, he completely ignored the pressure of the sensor capsule on his body. There was only one thought in his mind, which was “Run!”

More than a dozen mechas fled madly towards the outside of the oasis, followed by giant insects chasing them relentlessly. The number of insects was increasing, and there was a creepy rustling sound behind them. That was the sound made by the insects breaking through the vines, which made people shiver.

The only good news was that every time a soldier was  in dire straits, a giant sealing arrow would fly from the jungle ahead, piercing through the most threatening giant insect and knocking it away. Even if the insect was not dead, it would take a while for it to catch up, thus dragging people out of dire straits time and time again.