Battle on the Insect Planet (4): Talent

The dozen or so soldiers who were fleeing had mixed feelings, because they knew where the energy arrow was shot from.

Earlier, when a man carrying a sealing bow advised them to act more cautiously, no one took him seriously. As a result, the slap in the face came too fast and too hard, like a tornado.

But what else could they do?

The mecha detectors detected that the number of giant insects behind them was increasing continuously, and in just two minutes, the number had exceeded one hundred. This was no longer a situation they could handle. If they didn’t escape quickly, the insects will bury them all alive!

Finally, the jungle ahead became sparse and the light of stars could be seen shining through the gaps, which indicated that they were about to reach the edge of the oasis. As long as they rushed out of the jungle, they would be able to meet up with the main force!

Only three minutes had passed, but at the critical moment of life and death, the soldiers were secreted with a large amount of adrenaline, which made them feel that time had slowed down and every second felt like a year. Only by reuniting with their comrades could the exhausted soldiers see some hope.

As a result, when they finally rushed out of the oasis, they suddenly discovered that the twenty or so mechas that were supposed to be waiting outside the oasis had already evacuated to a distant place in two groups.

Seeing this, Liu Wennian, who was running and shouting the order “retreat”, paused for a moment, his mouth twitched, but he did not dare to stop. He continued to rush forward, trying his best to get away from the oasis.

Seeing more than a dozen mechas rushing out of the jungle at high speed, the two groups of mechas that had evacuated far away attacked from both sides at the same time. Huge electromagnetic light beams crossed each other, and a tight firepower network was built behind the mechas that had just rushed out of the oasis. The giant insects that were chasing the most closely rushed into the firepower network one after another.

The terrifying attack force cut off the trees at the edge of the oasis, leaving the scene in a mess.

“Stop attacking!”

Xia Ruize’s voice rang out on the internal channel. The sixteen mechas that had successfully joined the main force under the cover of their comrades stopped and turned their heads to look back as ordered.

The giant insects that rushed to the edge of the oasis stopped in front of the fire net, shook their front limbs demonstratively, turned around and rushed into the jungle, and soon disappeared. Only the messy jungle and scattered broken limbs were left at the edge of the oasis.

“It seems that the oasis is their territory. Are they unwilling to leave the oasis, or… are they afraid to leave?”

Cheng Huaiqian’s question broke the silence of the team’s internal channel. Liu Wennian immediately turned his gaze in the direction of Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian, and the other soldiers also turned their gazes over there.

The more than 20 mechas waiting on the edge of the oasis actually had no idea what was going on. When Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian rushed out of the oasis, they were ordered to evacuate in two separate routes.

At that time, Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian each carried a wounded soldier on their mecha shoulders, and two other mechas rushed out of the oasis behind them. The soldiers waiting outside were affected by their actions and unconsciously evacuated in the direction away from the oasis, but they actually didn’t know why they were running.

Just now, they launched an attack under the orders of Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian, and vaguely saw something strange in the jungle, but the insect limbs all over the ground and the giant insects that flashed by could not answer their doubts. At this time, the situation calmed down temporarily, and the confused soldiers of course wanted to figure it out.

“Xia Ruize, right? Facts have proven that your previous proposal made sense and my order was too hasty. Can you explain the basis of your proposal and what new proposal you have now?”

Liu Wennian’s voice was much gentler, and he asked sincerely. He didn’t mind being slapped in the face in front of his subordinates at all. On the contrary, the more powerful his teammates were, the happier he was.

In a pioneering team, the stronger the teammates were, the greater the chance that others will survive.

Liu Wennian knew very well that if Xia Ruize had not warned them in advance that the situation in the oasis was unusual, which planted seeds of suspicion and vigilance in their hearts, and had not covered them several times when they evacuated, the dozen or so mechas he led might not have been able to evacuate the oasis safely.

Therefore, Liu Wennian did not feel angry about his authority being challenged, but was only grateful for surviving the disaster and discovering the treasure.

“I have a strong intuition. When I don’t feel well, there is often danger.” Xia Ruize spoke calmly, not dwelling on the previous incident. After a pause, he continued, “The bad thing is that I don’t feel well now either. I suggest… we return to the camp.”

Xia Ruize frowned in the mecha sensor cabin, with his space backtracking skill fully activated. He kept checking the surrounding situation every second, and his eyes were fixed on the oasis in the distance. He kept thinking in his mind, if those giant insects did not leave the oasis because of territorial awareness, then whose territory did the sand they were standing on now belong to?

Xia Ruize’s suggestion made Liu Wennian speechless again and he fell silent. The only voices on the internal channel were the soldiers who followed Liu Wennian into the oasis and other team members who explained what had happened in the jungle.

“Insects? It’s actually an insect…”

A soldier who was waiting outside the oasis finally figured out what happened. He hesitated for a moment and finally confessed:

“In fact, I support soldier Xia’s suggestion. I got some inside information before I came here. We are not the first group to set foot on Erdogan. Before us, all the explorers who discovered this resource planet lost contact. The second group of explorers sent by the Dormon Consortium to which they belonged also lost contact. We, we are actually the third group to set foot on this planet. Unfortunately, compared to completing the mission, we should cherish our lives…”

“Why don’t we decide by voting?” Liu Wennian thought for a moment and put forward his proposal, “Anyone who is willing to obey soldier Xia’s orders should stand behind soldier Xia.” After saying that, he began to count down from twenty.

The forty-one mechas that merged into one shook their huge heads and looked around, hesitating, and finally stood behind Xia Ruize one by one. When Liu Wennian counted down to “4”, he saw that all the mechas except him stood behind Xia Ruize, so he simply stopped counting down and jumped behind Xia Ruize.

“soldier Xia, look, everyone has chosen you to be the captain. From now on, we will listen to you.”

Without blushing or beating his heart, Liu Wennian gave up the position of squad Captain without any embarrassment. This action made Xia Ruize stunned.

This guy was just trying to shirk responsibility, right?

“Ahem, Captain, I spoke too hastily before. Please don’t take it to heart if I offend you. If you have the ability, I will definitely listen to you.”

The young soldier who had mocked Xia Ruize before was entangled for a long time. He apologized quickly and hastily on the internal channel, and implicitly helped Xia Ruize to establish his status.

Xia Ruize pulled the corner of his mouth helplessly, and under the inexplicable gazes of the other mechas, he controlled the mecha to turn around on the spot, and finally said in a firm tone:

“Today is our first day on this planet. It is too dangerous to leave the camp without permission. We will return the same way and explore the area around the camp.”

The truth was, no matter which direction Xia Ruize turned, he felt uncomfortable. He felt uneasy as if something might happen at any time. Xia Ruize rarely encountered such a situation. Even when he appeared in the hospital shrouded by the phantom king’s cage in the previous world, he didn’t have such a strong feeling.

Xia Ruize was only responsible for making decisions. When it came to command, he was far less experienced than the natives of the mission world. So in the end, he still relied on Liu Wennian to command the soldiers to line up according to the formation diagram he provided and return the way they came.

This time, Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian followed Liu Wennian’s mecha, whispering about their mecha combat experiences all the way. Liu Wennian had to admit that these two were really new recruits. Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but glance at Xia Ruize. The new recruits had beast-like intuition and amazing shooting ability. This could only be explained by the fact that some people were just gifted, and others could not envy them.

“stop!”

Xia Ruize’s order suddenly rang out on the internal channel. The running mecha squad stopped immediately, looked around vigilantly, and waited for new orders.

“Disperse the formation and aim down carefully.”

As Xia Ruize finished his quick and urgent words, forty mechas immediately dispersed, and the guns on their arms pointed at the ground.

In the solemn atmosphere, the ground in the center of the crowd suddenly turned upside down, and a huge yellow-colored monster rushed out from the ground. Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian, who had been prepared, as well as a dozen soldiers with rich combat experience, launched attacks one after another with their high-energy electromagnetic shock guns. Even though the attacker tried his best to dodge, there were too many attack directions and its body was too large, so more than a dozen light beams still crossed and pierced the attacker.

After the attacker fell powerlessly to the ground and the dust cleared, everyone could see clearly what the target was. It turned out to be a huge yellow insect.

“I think we should run faster…” Xia Ruize interrupted everyone’s exclamations and said in a serious tone, “If this insect is the same as the first one that appeared in the oasis and is here to test our abilities, then what awaits us next may be a siege by a large number of insects…”

Listening to Xia Ruize’s words and looking at the endless sand under their feet, the other members of the team felt a chill in their hearts. What if the giant yellowish bugs were hiding under the sand? They couldn’t help but shudder at the thought.

The soldiers who were skeptical about Xia Ruize before were now completely convinced. Where did this genius teammate come from? His intuition was better than a detector!

Those who had complete faith in Xia Ruize did not waste any time and ran at full speed in the direction of the temporary camp.

After running for more than ten minutes, they finally entered the range of the temporary camp’s star network. Almost at the same time, everyone’s mecha received an order from the temporary camp: “Quickly return to help!!”

The tone of the three orders was more urgent each time, and the hearts of the team members were getting heavier and heavier. They wanted to return to the camp because it was too dangerous outside, but now it seemed that the situation in the camp was not optimistic…

“We don’t know the exact situation at the camp right now. Anyway, we’d better go back. The camp has a planetary resource station, and its defense capability is much stronger than our single mecha. What do you think, Captain Xia?”

Liu Wennian’s tone was more solemn than ever before. He didn’t need Xia Ruize’s innate intuition. He felt very bad now.

“Be prepared to fight at any time.” Xia Ruize reminded, and then signaled Liu Wennian to continue leading the team at the front and lead all the soldiers of the squad to continue rushing towards the camp.