Battle on the Insect Planet (13): Hijacking

Because the mecha’s body would be completely covered by insects, a large number of insects would continuously attack the same position. Even a Type 9 mecha could not withstand such targeted attacks, and the joints began to break.

Some fighters finally realized that in the previous battle, while humans were slaughtering insects, the insects were also quickly familiarizing themselves with the details of the human Type 9 mechas. As a result, they now avoided some of the mechas’ attacks and destroyed the mechas’ key positions.

It took them 20 minutes to get here, but on the way back they only walked halfway in 20 minutes.

“We can’t sustain the energy for much longer. Evacuate at full speed. Just retreat to the edge of the oasis.”

The captain frowned and issued a new order, which meant marching at full speed. Even if more soldiers fell, the other soldiers would not come to support them.

At this time, eight of the sixty mechas were lost.

After receiving the order and seeing the notification on the mecha screen that the energy was about to run out, the soldiers knew the seriousness of the matter and immediately rushed at full speed in the direction they came from, regardless of everything.

Soon, everyone saw the light coming from the edge of the oasis. They knew that there were other soldiers in the camp clearing the oasis, and they would be able to return to the main force soon.

The special forces soldiers rushed out of the jungle with relaxed minds and in a hurry to avoid the insects behind them, and did not notice anything unusual.

By the time everyone finally realized that something was wrong, the dozen or so Type 9 mechas running in the front had already rushed out of the oasis at full speed, and also rushed out of the ground. After a brief hovering in the air, they fell into the bottomless pit.

The mechas in the rear that noticed the abnormality hurriedly stopped at the edge of the pit and were shocked to find that in front of them there was no longer the charred ground that had been cleared by humans before, nor were there hundreds of human mechas at work. Instead, there was a large, deep, bottomless pit.

In just a moment, all the people who saw the deep pit felt a chill all over their bodies. After a few seconds, they had not even heard the echo of the mecha falling to the ground, and they had completely lost contact with their companions.

What was even more surprising was that in just a few seconds of exertion, the ground under the feet of more than a dozen Type 9 mechas closest to the edge of the pit suddenly collapsed, and the mechas standing on the edge followed their companions and fell into the pit.

The remaining mechas finally realized that something was wrong and retreated hastily, but it was too late. They had rushed too fast before, and even if they stopped, they stopped at the edge of the pit. As a result, in just a dozen seconds, a total of three batches of forty Type 9 mechas all fell into the pit.

Excluding the eight mechas destroyed in the previous battle, there were only twelve Type 9 mechas left.

The remaining mechas scrambled and rolled far away from the edge of the pit, but the images displayed on the mecha screens made them completely panic, because the jungle behind them was already filled with dense green insects from top to bottom.

The drone sent by the camp arrived at the scene too late, and only had time to collect images of the last two Type 9 mechas submerged in the sea of ​​insects.

The Type 9 mechas were indeed powerful, but they needed sufficient energy support to exert their full functions. Obviously, after fighting for an hour, the Type 9 mechas could not hold on any longer. Even if they were controlled by special forces, it did not change the final outcome.

The result of the annihilation of the entire army left the camp command stunned and completely unwilling to believe what they saw.

But no matter how many drones the camp sent out, the only conclusion they sent back was that, at that moment, except for this small camp, all human combat forces on the planet Erdogan had been wiped out.

The captain’s uniform was soaked with cold sweat. He yelled madly and asked his men to continue sending various drones and drilling robots to explore the oasis and the pit.

Now, every minute and every second was a torture for him, and it is almost like a year.

Half an hour later, the drones only found traces of various battles in the oasis, and not a single Type 9 mecha was found. As for the pit, the drilling robots were always quickly destroyed by the passing ochre-colored insects, and all kinds of explorations were fruitless.

With no other options, the camp had to report the actual situation to the headquarters in space, and then wait anxiously for the headquarters’ decision.

What were Xia Ruize and the other two doing at this time?

They were surrounded by insects.

The three of them landed safely at the bottom of the pit. They were afraid to move because they were surrounded by insects. Then a sound rang out at the bottom of the pit:

“Dear guests from afar, I hope to have the honor of inviting you to our gathering.”

The sudden sound surprised the three people. They looked around but did not see any other humans. They only saw the insects in the largest passage on the mountain wall retreating like a tide, leaving the passage empty.

“Although I hate to admit it, I think it’s very likely that the thing that spoke was an insect. It seems that there are indeed intelligent creatures among insects, and they have mastered human language.”

Cheng Huaiqian’s voice echoed in their minds, filled with shock and helplessness.

Just as the three were discussing in shock and caution, the insects in the dozens of passages on the surrounding mountain walls rustled down and gathered at the bottom of the pit, surrounding the three mechas at the bottom of the pit. They left only one path, which led to the passage vacated by the insects, hinting that the three should obey their arrangements.

“Be careful, I’ll go check it out first.”

Xia Ruize gave a warning, opened the cockpit first, jumped down, and landed steadily on the ground.

The nearest insect was less than two meters away from him. He had been fighting for most of the day, but this was the first time that Xia Ruize had observed an insect so calmly from such a close distance.

The yellow colored insect was more than two meters tall, with two black eyes looking down, also observing the humans nearby.

Xia Ruize felt carefully and indeed did not sense any hostile attacks from the densely packed insects around him. He simply followed the path vacated by the insects and walked into the passage on the mountain wall.

There were actually insects waiting in the passage, retreating as Xia Ruize moved forward.

At this time, the insects in the back who could not wait any longer began to knock on the legs of the mecha with their front legs, urging Cheng Huaiqian and Gao Hexuan who were still in the cockpit.

Xia Ruize stopped, turned around and waved. Cheng Huaiqian and Gao Hexuan immediately opened the door of the mecha, jumped down, and walked towards their teammates amid the welcome of the insects.

After the three of them left the mecha and gathered together, they were completely surrounded by insects.

The insects behind them monitored them two or three meters behind, and the insects in front led the way two or three meters in front of them. In this way, the three people were held by the insects, and followed the insects’ requirements all the way through the long underground passage, and finally came to a tall and spacious underground hall.

The hall was surrounded by insects, leaving the center empty. The most surprising thing was that there were already a dozen humans standing or sitting in the empty space in the center.

Xia Ruize glanced around and saw his old acquaintance Liu Wennian. Liu Wennian also saw Xia Ruize and the other two walking out of a passage on the mountain wall. He was about to reach out to say hello, but he caught a glimpse of Antonio next to him and quickly stopped his action.

Antonio opened his eyes wide and asked: “You three are still alive?” He looked shocked, and then, perhaps thinking of the common plight of the people, he no longer had the interest to continue fighting with the three of them, so he just said that and continued to sit there.

Liu Wennian quickly whispered to the three people who had just arrived to explain the situation:

“Everyone here was brought here by the insects after landing safely with great difficulty. You three are the fourth group to come. Sigh, now we don’t know how many people will survive in the end, and we don’t know what these insects want to do to us…”

Even someone as experienced as Liu Wennian was confused by the current situation and could not help but look at Xia Ruize expectantly, hoping that Xia Ruize’s intuition could give him some hints.

Antonio beside him sneered: “What else can we do? Of course they are offering us to the higher-level insects to eat for fun!”

This sentence simply expressed everyone’s most fearful guess, and the expressions of the dozen or so people around him suddenly became much uglier.

“Don’t despair just yet. At least we are still alive.”

Xia Ruize comforted Liu Wennian, and Liu Wennian seemed to have gained some faith and became much more energetic.

Now Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian had the opportunity to take a good look around. The entire underground hall was about the length and width of three basketball courts, and was over a hundred meters high.

Directly in front of everyone was a high platform, the highest point of which was a completely flat surface. The material of the platform appeared to be black stone, but it was faintly glowing and had delicate patterns carved on it, making it very different.

The ground beneath everyone’s feet was flat stone, and the surrounding walls were also flat stone walls with neatly arranged holes. At this moment, the heads of insects were sticking out from the edges of those holes.

The humans in the center of the hall were actually surrounded by insects from all directions and angles. Fortunately, most of these insects did not move, did not make any sound, and just looked at the humans surrounded in the middle with curiosity.

The close attention from thousands of insects puts a lot of pressure on people, but people had no choice but to sit here and wait for the judgment of fate.

Including Xia Ruize and the other two, there were only 19 humans in the hall. It was despairing to think about these 19 people breaking out of the encirclement of thousands of insects and then rushing to the ground thousands of meters above.

The good news was that soon there was a sound coming from a passage in the stone wall again, and another eight humans were escorted to the hall by the insects. The desperate and solemn expressions on their faces brightened for a moment when they saw their compatriots in the hall.

After all, humans are social animals, and seeing others of our own kind is always reassuring.

Two hours later, under the escort of the insects, nearly 200 humans finally gathered in the center of the hall.

As more and more of their kind arrived, the atmosphere became more active. Some soldiers were already discussing in a low voice how to kill the enemy camp with these 200 people.

At this moment, a group of humans walked out of a passage again, there were more than 80 people. What was surprising was that these people were clearly the ones whose mechas were blocked by insects in the previous battle and were marked as “sacrificed” on the camp list.

In the chaotic battle, they disappeared along with their mechas, and the camp naturally believed that they had died. If they had not seen it with their own eyes now, no one would believe that these soldiers were not actually sacrificed, but were instead being guarded by the insects.

After a series of screams, the two teams merged into one, and faint cries could be heard.

At the same time, the insects that had been very quiet suddenly became agitated. They waved their forelimbs excitedly, colliding with the ground and stone walls with their forelimbs, making noisy sounds.

Battle on the Insect Planet (12): Flip

The flying parts of Type 6 mecha had a lift capability of only about ten meters, and there was a prerequisite for it to work: there must be ground to rely on below. Now that there was no ground, the flying parts of Type 6 mecha had become decorations.

Although the Type 9 Mecha had a stronger flying ability, it was the first to fall due to its own weight. Type 6 Mechas and countless insects fell on top of it, leaving it no chance to take off.

Moreover, the area where the ground collapsed was too large, and there were no walls around to leverage on. A pile of super-heavy metal mechas could only fall down in a flurry.

At the critical moment, Xia Ruize only had time to meet up with Cheng Huaiqian. The two of them held their giant mecha hands tightly together, and then threw out a rope to tie up Gao Hexuan’s mecha. The three of them turned off the flight thrusters of the mecha’s wings and fell down.

The saved precious energy was used to adjust the falling direction at the critical moment to avoid hitting the rock wall and causing the mecha to be destroyed and people to die.

The underground pit seemed to have no end. During the falling process, in order to avoid various obstacles, the soldiers’ mechas gradually dispersed.

They fell straight down for perhaps a thousand meters. The debris that the three people kept knocking down finally hit the ground with an echo. The three people quickly spread the wings of the Type 9 mecha and turned on the engines on the wings to maximum power. The upward thrust rebounded the falling gravity, and it continued to slow down until it finally “landed” safely.

The trio’s mechas landed smoothly on flat ground. The best news was that no one was killed in the fall. The bad news was that they were in real trouble.

It was because after they stood firmly, they turned on the headlights on the mecha and shone the surroundings, and saw tunnels dug by countless insects of all sizes, as well as the entrances of the tunnels filled with insects that were looking at them quietly.

The scene was like a nightmare.

Gao Hexuan stared at the screen of the mecha cockpit in amazement. He was frightened by the number of insects swarming around him. There were only five words in his mind: “God wants to kill us!”

Xia Ruize’s first reaction was to look up, but he could not see any brightness in the sky, only the light scattered in the endless darkness.

Obviously, facing the Type 9 mecha killer launched by humans, the insects also launched a mass killer. They must have dug through the entire planet long ago to dig such a deep pit in such a short time and bury nearly 500 human mecha soldiers.

“Tsk, the world is really unpredictable…”

Cheng Huaiqian sighed and said with emotion.

If they were not the ones who fell into the desperate situation, they would definitely marvel at the insects’ heroic deeds. Unfortunately, now it was they who had fallen into the pile of insects, and what they should consider was how to escape.

“You say, with a mecha and a flying machine, do we have a chance to fly up?”

Xia Ruize looked around at the insects in the passages along the surrounding walls and couldn’t help but lower his voice to ask.

The flying vehicle was a skateboard-style high-tech equipment that they obtained in a previous mission world. It could rely on energy crystals to fly, and had no altitude limit. It was the first equipment that Xia Ruize thought of in the current situation.

Thinking of the long time he had spent falling, Xia Ruize began to doubt the possibility of climbing up by human power.

During the discussion, the three did not control the mecha to perform any actions except the headlights, for fear that any rash actions would stimulate the surrounding insects and attract their siege.

“I’m afraid it won’t work.” Cheng Huaiqian shook his head. “The flying ability of this broken mecha is too unreliable. If we rely on a flesh-and-iron flying machine, I’m afraid it will be thrown down by a ‘flying insect’.”

At this point, Cheng Huaiqian paused and suddenly asked Xia Ruize, “By the way, how do you feel now?”

Xia Ruize was stunned by this question. He tilted his head and felt it carefully. After a long time, he replied hesitantly:

“Actually, I don’t feel that bad right now. It seems that the current situation is not as dangerous as before… Maybe it’s because this is a long-term mission. It won’t put us in a deadly situation on the first day?”

Xia Ruize’s voice was filled with a hesitation that he himself could not believe. If Xia Ruize knew what the current situation on the ground was, he would probably know why he felt this way.

The ground suddenly collapsed earlier, causing more than 400 Type 6 mechas and more than 60 Type 9 mechas that were being cleared at the edge of the oasis to fall into the pit. During the falling process, if the mechas were not controlled in time to avoid obstacles in the middle, they would hit walls and rocks, and all of them would end up being destroyed and the people would be killed.

At the same time, countless yellow colored insects suddenly emerged along the metal plate road on the ground. Under the attack of weapons on the metal plate road and the firepower of human camp support, they forcibly cut and split the heavy metal plates into countless pieces and brought them back underground.

The command headquarters was stunned because they witnessed all the soldiers falling into the pit. Soon they lost real-time control of the front line again and could only send out drones urgently to find out what was happening on the front line.

The situation on the front line has completely reversed.

All the mechas on the edge of the oasis fell into the huge pit, and the type 9 mechas operated by the sixty special fighters deep into the oasis also encountered an unprecedented crisis.

The brave special forces soldiers lined up and went deep into the oasis. Twenty minutes later, they finally saw the huge insect nest they had seen in the video footage before.

The only difference was that the insect nest in front of them was empty, and there seemed to be no giant green insects to be seen.

The three teams were separated by a certain distance from each other, yet they were able to communicate with each other and approached the insect nest together.

After all three teams were in place, almost at the same time, countless shells were fired from the muzzles of the Type 9 mecha, targeting a huge insect nest made of vines and trees not far away.

After several rounds of artillery shells shattered the insect nest in front, the huge Type 9 mecha rushed towards the center of the insect nest with an earth-shaking momentum.

With the special forces’ superb control level, the huge HS-9 mecha moved extremely flexibly, and running, jumping and climbing were all no problem.

The mecha was still holding a weapon in its hand, and the weapon was surrounded by extremely high-temperature flames. Wherever the weapon went, the flames quickly spread along the vines.

But only after they actually rushed to the center of the insect nest did the special forces confirm that their previous impression was not an illusion, as the number of insects within their field of vision was abnormally small.

The captains of the leading teams frowned, intuitively realizing that something was wrong.

The video footage they had watched in the camp had clearly shown that the insect nest was full of green insects of all sizes, but now that they had actually entered the insect nest, where were the insects?

The soldiers, their heads covered in fog, began to search separately, using their weapons to set all the surrounding vines on fire, seemingly preparing to burn the entire insect nest to ashes.

Tall trees fell to the ground, raising clouds of dust. Deep in the jungle, it looked like the end of the world.

Soon, a soldier keenly noticed that the noise made by the falling trees seemed to be a little too much.

After his reminder, the other soldiers carefully observed and finally discovered that there were quite a few green insects hiding at the edge of the nest, and they were also working hard to cut down the trees around the nest.

“Ha, are those little creatures trying to cut down trees and trap us? How pathetic their naivety.”

The special forces soldiers laughed at their opponents mercilessly. Now that they had been discovered, how could they let the bugs’ plan succeed?

The team leader waved his hand, and the soldiers dispersed and rushed towards the bugs that were destroying their own nests. They were eager to kill all the bugs within their sight and let the command center see the huge gap between their special forces and ordinary weaklings.

The special forces fighters deep in the oasis did not know that their compatriots outside the oasis had fallen into an endless deep pit. If they knew, they would definitely pay more attention to the ground under their feet.

They saw that the previously flat and solid ground suddenly had countless potholes. These potholes were so large that even a Type 9 mecha would fall down due to unstable balance if it stepped into one of them.

Almost at the same time, more than a dozen Type 9 mechas that stepped into the pits fell heavily to the ground, stirring up countless dust. Even if the other mechas managed to stabilize their center of gravity, they were about to pull out the metal legs that were stuck in the pits when they found that the insects hiding on the tops of the trees above their heads and the insects around the insect nests all swarmed over.

Fortunately, the special forces soldiers who were extremely experienced in combat were not worried about the small mistake at the moment. The head-on confrontation with the enemy only made them excited. They immediately activated the terrifying weapons on the Type 9 mecha, turning most of the insects into a pile of broken limbs before they got close to the mecha.

The human mecha fell into the pit like a switch, and countless green insects that had not been seen before suddenly emerged from the jungle. Their shapes blended perfectly with the surrounding environment, so that when they were not moving, it was difficult for humans to find their traces. But now that they moved, the humans’ vision was filled with a green color that covered the sky and the sun.

It was difficult for human mechas to stand. Whenever they walked on the ground, they would step into a pit. The deep and shallow pits would test the soldiers’ energy and control level. But if the mecha rose into the air, insects would keep falling from the top and fall directly onto the mecha.

The insects had no fear of death, and used their lives to consume the energy of the special soldier mechas and the stored weapons and ammunition.

After the fierce battle lasted for half an hour, the leading captains realized that it was not in their best interest to continue fighting.

Anyway, their purpose of going deep into the oasis this time was to test the true strength of the insect swarm’s nest. Now that they had collected enough data, they could retreat.

After reaching an agreement, the three teams began to move toward the outside of the oasis.

As if realizing that humans were preparing to evacuate, the insects’ attacks suddenly became more fierce. The densely packed, fearless entanglement of the insects finally made the special forces soldiers participating in the battle feel psychologically uncomfortable. The natives of this planet were unexpectedly tough and good at fighting.

The special forces soldiers who moved out of the jungle step by step with difficulty experienced firsthand how easy it was for them to get in, but how difficult it was to get out.

Finally, human casualties occurred.

Because there was a deep pit on the ground that was fine when you just stood on it, but if the attacking insects tripped you and you stood there for a few seconds, you would suddenly fall into it. The human soldiers were caught off guard and would fall more than ten meters in a flash, with the lower half of the mecha falling completely into the pit.

What was even worse was that when the mecha fell, it was hit by the insects that flew over and knocked it down completely. Once the mecha fell, it was very likely that it would never stand up again even with the support of teammates.

Battle on the Insect Planet (11): Fall

However, in a highly hierarchical army, challenging superior officers is a very bad behavior. No one dared to try it easily and could only endure it forcefully.

Antonio’s expression became even more proud, and he even reached out and casually pushed the soldier in front of him away, admiring with satisfaction the suppressed anger on the young soldier’s face.

Xia Ruize raised his hand to support a soldier who took two steps back and retreated to his side. Then he took a step forward and reached out to grab the wrist of Antonio’s hand that was trying to push him.

Xia Ruize had a very keen sense of emotions. He knew that Antonio was not using the provocation method to stimulate the fighting spirit of the soldiers, but purely for the fun of teasing his subordinates.

Now he turned the target of teasing to Xia Ruize. How could Xia Ruize let him get what he wanted?

Antonio’s wrist was stuck, and the proud expression on his face disappeared, and soon turned into anger. He tried hard to free his wrist, but found that it was held motionless by Xia Ruize.

The soldiers in the squad silently watched the contest between the front and rear captains, looking at Xia Ruize with expectation and encouragement in their eyes.

Seeing Antonio being defeated by Xia Ruize, the soldiers became excited, as if they had taught Antonio a lesson.

Antonio realized that Xia Ruize dared to openly refute his face and embarrassed him in front of his men. In anger, he stretched out his legs and kicked Xia Ruize hard.

Xia Ruize turned sideways to avoid Antonio’s attack, and at the same time extended his leg to kick Antonio’s calf, directly kicking the tall and strong Antonio forward and to the ground.

The huge force caused Antonio to hug his calf in pain immediately after falling instead of fighting back.

Another special soldier who had been silent behind Antonio realized that something was wrong and wanted to step forward to help. Cheng Huaiqian took two steps in front of the opponent and put his hand on the opponent’s shoulder. It seemed to be a gentle pressure, but in fact the nearly two-meter-tall special soldier was forced down by this hand, and no matter how hard he struggled, he could not move.

“You, what do you want to do? Do you want to disobey orders?”

The pain was so painful that his mind went blank. Antonio, who finally recovered from the pain, reprimanded loudly in a panic. The current situation was completely out of his control and imagination.

As a member of the special forces, it was not that Antonio had never cooperated with ordinary soldiers. When had he not suppressed those weak soldiers with his identity and strength?

Even if there was occasional sporadic resistance, it was more fun to suppress it. This was the first time that Antonio had been taught a lesson by a weak soldier in his eyes. The current situation made Antonio very uncomfortable.

“What do we want to do? Time is precious, so it’s better to use it to rest.”

Xia Ruize’s tone was calm, not a suggestion, but a statement. After speaking, he glanced condescendingly at Antonio, turned around and walked towards the rest area.

Cheng Huaiqian lifted up the special soldier who was pressed down and was forced to look up at him. He followed Xia Ruize and left the team with ease. Gao Hexuan, who had been watching the two bosses show off their power the whole time, quickly followed.

However, the other soldiers behind them just looked at their backs with envy, hesitated for a while, and no one dared to leave with them.

Xia Ruize, who had already walked far away, paused and thought for a moment, then shook his head and continued moving forward.

They were just passers-by in this world and were not bound by the rules of this world. They could not simply comment on the behavior of the indigenous people in the mission world as “right” or “wrong”. They simply ignored it and didn’t get too involved.

Antonio stared bitterly at the retreating figures of the three men. He didn’t know what he thought of, but a fierce light flashed in his eyes. Then he turned to look at the other soldiers who were still standing there, with a cruel smile on his lips.

The angry Antonio had a good “communication” with the remaining soldiers. The specific communication method was to fight in pairs in the name of testing, and then quickly taught the soldiers who were far inferior to him in the battle a lesson.

After some exchanges, Antonio took a deep breath and felt refreshed.

The soldiers who were beaten with bruises and swollen faces dared not speak out in anger, and were afraid of the tall and terrifying Antonio, so some people began to hate Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian for being too arrogant and causing them to suffer.

During the entire exchange process, the special forces soldiers who were assigned to other teams took it for granted and did not bother to pay attention. At most, they took the opportunity to teach their subordinates a lesson.

The chicken was killed in front of his eyes, and the other monkeys immediately stayed calm.

The command headquarters only gave the soldiers an hour to rest, and the assembly bell rang impatiently, and new tasks were issued.

Even if the soldiers complained in their hearts about the lack of rest time, it was useless, because the special forces soldiers who had just landed on the Erdogan planet could not wait to make achievements.

Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian walked out of the rest area and walked towards the area where the Type 9 mechas were parked. They found that the original 30 Type 9 mechas had been expanded to hundreds. Even the size of the camp had been expanded again. It seemed that all the special forces were Type 9 mecha operators.

Antonio had already turned on the mecha, and finally saw Xia Ruize and the others. He immediately stepped towards Xia Ruize. The eighteen-meter-high mecha suddenly leaned over in front of Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian. He stretched out his big metal hand and made a grabbing gesture towards the two of them, trying to scare them.

Xia Ruize stared at the shadow above his head, his expression unchanged at all. Cheng Huaiqian’s eyes were cold and he even had a smile on his lips, which disappointed Antonio who was expecting to see a frightened expression.

“You must be obedient when you leave the camp.”

Antonio’s voice sounded outside the mecha through the loudspeaker, with a strong sense of threat.

Xia Ruize calmly took a step back and stood on the metal palm of his mecha. This palm carried the person to the cockpit. Then the mecha was activated and he also said:

“You little miscellaneous fish should just play in the mud by yourself.”

Antonio was immediately furious, but Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian had already entered the mecha, and he couldn’t even scare them.

Antonio dared to “discuss and communicate” with the soldiers in person, but he did not dare to pilot a mecha to “communicate” with other mechas in the camp. He had to suppress his anger and prepare to teach these disobedient monkeys a lesson at the right opportunity.

The dispute between a few people also attracted the attention of others. Xia Ruize felt that the surroundings were filled with strong malice. He couldn’t help but frown and complained: “It’s really troublesome.”

Cheng Huaiqian’s smiling voice came from the channel, “It’s definitely not us who should really be in trouble.”

“Yes, yes, everything is under control.”

Gao Hexuan also quickly emphasized his sense of existence. In addition to being obsessed with mechas, he was also devoted to cracking the camp’s network.

Due to the gap in technological strength, the network here was a bit difficult for him, but it was just difficult. His blood talent had helped him find the correct rules, which had greatly improved his progress in cracking the network.

Xia Ruize, who was sitting in the driver’s seat, couldn’t help but smile.

This mission was still to go to the oasis. The metal plate road along the way showed signs of damage, and the metal plates had even disappeared in some areas. The soldiers controlled the mechas to complete and reinforce the road, followed the metal halfway, and finally reached the area of ​​black scorched earth.

The war that happened not long ago left craters everywhere and a mess.

Human soldiers were accustomed to ignoring the surrounding environment. As before, the soldiers controlling the Type 6 mecha cut and cleaned along the edge of the oasis, while the Type 9 soldiers controlled the vigilance.

The difference was that three pure Type 9 mecha teams composed of special soldiers went directly into the oasis without waiting for the oasis to be completely cleaned.

The trees in the oasis were unusually tall, and they soon covered up the traces of the Type 9 soldiers. Only the trees they chopped down from time to time to clear the way could vaguely reveal their positions.

Xia Ruize in the cab had a serious expression and alert eyes. Since arriving near the oasis, the feedback from the surrounding environment made him feel very bad.

He knew this meant there was danger lurking in the surrounding nature.

The question was where exactly was the danger? In what form?

After searching carefully to no avail, Xia Ruize reminded his soldiers:

“Everyone, please be careful.”

As soon as these words came out, many people’s expressions suddenly changed.

The old team members had seen Xia Ruize’s keen intuition many times. When the familiar people heard his words, they immediately raised their vigilance to the highest level, and Antonio laughed unceremoniously:

“Is the baby scared now? If you are scared, just go home quickly and get under your mother’s skirt, hahahaha…”

Antonio’s laughter was very rampant until he noticed that the entire team’s internal channel was silent except for his laughter, and the other soldiers were obviously cautious in their movements.

This made Antonio very unhappy, thinking that this phenomenon meant that the soldiers were closer to Xia Ruize than him. This was a contempt for his strength and a challenge to his authority, so Antonio said viciously in the internal channel:

“How can you not cheer for such a funny joke? Laugh! ¡Laugh for me!”

As a result, Xia Ruize was heard to warn again in the next second: “Watch your step!”

But the warning was too late. The black scorched earth beneath everyone’s feet suddenly sank in a large area, and the Type 9 and Type 6 mechas on the ground suddenly collapsed.

After the ground collapsed, Xia Ruize realized what had happened. The entire underground part of the black scorched earth had actually been hollowed out by insects. Only the layer of surface closest to the air was left intact, forming a huge trap waiting for humans to step into it.

When human soldiers came to clear the oasis in the scorched earth area, a large number of earthy-colored insects frantically dug upwards from the underground hollows.

And when their figures entered Xia Ruize’s exploration, the weak ground could no longer support the heavy Type 9 mecha.

The most terrifying thing was that it was not a small pit under human beings, but a bottomless pit.

Almost at the same time as it sank, Xia Ruize was already controlling the huge wings stretched out from the back of the mecha. The Type 9 mecha did not obtain the ability to fly by the vibration of the wings, but by the huge driving force generated by the burning flames at the lower ends of the wings. The mecha pushed upwards.

Unfortunately, his action was too late. The insect swarm used thousands of insects to dig through the last layer of the ground at the same time. When the ground was dug through, the first ones to fall were actually the burrowing insects. Next came the heaviest type 9 mecha, then the unsuspecting type 6 mecha at work, and at the top there were countless insects stacked and pressed down.

Battle on the Insect Planet (10): Advantage

Xia Ruize sat in the cab and looked at the busy soldiers below, with a somewhat complicated mood. It was obvious that the command headquarters had not given up on exploring the target oasis in depth, but had only changed the previous rough and rash combat method to a more secure and safer combat method.

But if such a relatively safe approach could be adopted from the very beginning, would it have been possible to avoid a lot of casualties?

They should be really lucky that there was no night on this planet, and the sky never got dark, which saved a lot of trouble for human projects.

Cheng Huaiqian controlled the Type 9 mecha and stood on guard on the other side of the metal road. He suddenly raised the metal arm of the mecha towards Xia Ruize and stretched out a metal finger. After Xia Ruize saw it, he subconsciously also raised his mecha arm and stretched out his fingers to meet Cheng Huaiqian’s.

The two of them achieved their goal of pointing their fingers across the metal road and the busy crowd below. Xia Ruize couldn’t help but laugh.

The team members under him worked hard and did not want to see the two people showing off their affection.

It took a full three hours to lay a 10-meter-wide metal plate road from the camp to the oasis. During this process, no insects disturbed the human progress. However, the soldiers no longer relaxed their vigilance easily. Instead, as time went by, the situation became more and more tense, and experience told them that if the insects did not appear, it was more likely that they were planning a bigger conspiracy.

There was a large area of ​​charred land at the edge of the oasis. Under the orders of the command, metal plates were spread over the charred land, all the way to the edge of the trees. Then the command issued a new order, requiring the soldiers to continue cutting and clearing the oasis as before.

The soldiers looked at the deep and unpredictable jungle in front of them, and then at the endless sandy land behind them. They felt that there was huge terror hidden in the seemingly peaceful environment.

But what else could they do? They couldn’t disobey the order, they could only pick up the axe and flamethrower and continue cleaning the oasis along the edge.

Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian stood at the end of the team, observing their surroundings vigilantly.

Everyone knew that insects would definitely come, but they didn’t know when they would come and what kind of attacks they would use to retaliate against humans.

Two hours later, most of the oasis was cleared. It was expected that with only another two hours of work, humans would be able to see the huge insect nest in the images brought back by the drone.

It was at this time that the counterattack from the insects that humans had been wary of finally arrived.

This time the insects did not use a surprise attack to rush into the crowd. A large number of insects came from all directions and stayed outside the scorched earth. The scary thing was that there were too many insects!

In just two minutes, the green giant insects in the oasis and the earthy yellow giant insects under the sand relied on their numbers to build a wall of insects on the edge of the scorched earth, trapping the human mechas in the scorched black earth created by humans themselves. .

Not to be outdone, humans formed an array to resist with the metal road as the center.

Thirty-two HS-9 mechas were on the outermost periphery, protecting the type 6 mechas in the middle, calmly looking at the insect wall in the distance and waiting quietly.

Soon, more than fifty bombs aimed at a circle of insect walls flew from the camp to the edge of the scorched earth. Amidst the huge sound and fire, the insect wall was blown to pieces. But this time, before the smoke dissipated, the following insects had already filled up the new insect wall.

The human soldiers in the middle of the encirclement remained motionless, just watching the rounds of artillery shells, blowing up the insect wall three times in a row.

This was the advantage of relying on the metal plate road to connect to the camp star network. The camp could grasp the battle situation on the front line in real time and decide the time and method of support on its own. With the support of the camp’s long-range artillery fire, the tall insect wall did not look so scary.

After three times, the insects realized that the situation had changed, and immediately changed their fighting methods. They no longer tried to build a wall of insects to block the way of the human mecha soldiers returning to the camp, but instead rushed towards the human soldiers in a flat pattern.

The captains of each team gave the order, and all Type 6 mechas took off to escape.

The Type 9 mecha didn’t even need weapons. It only needed to take steps. Every time the huge metal feet of the mecha took a step, it could crush a bunch of insects to death.

Not to mention that the Type 9 mecha was covered in weapons, and the cannons exposed by flipping over fired artillery one after another, dealing a heavy blow to the insect swarm.

The insect’s huge size and sharp forelimbs were not worth mentioning in front of the Type 9 mecha, and it could not pose much threat to the Type 9 mecha at all.

The only trouble was the number of insects, but that was all it was.

Some insects tried to pile up and climb up the Type 9 mecha. The legs of the Type 9 mecha flipped out with large and small sharp saw teeth, and the saw teeth rotated at full speed. The insects that came one after another did not even try to climb onto the body of the Type 9 mecha.

The insects were all “tiny” in front of the Type 9 mecha, and their desperate attacks seemed futile.

The insects turned to focus on the Type 6 mecha. Some insects tried to build a pile of insects to create “flying insects” to knock down the Type 6 mecha in mid-air. However, the Type 9 mecha could easily break up the pile of insects with a punch and a kick. .

Under the care of the Type 9 mecha, the insect pile could not take shape. The Type 6 mecha hovering at a height of ten meters would not be threatened and could smoothly output its full firepower.

The mecha’s display of power, coupled with the occasional fire support from the camp, allowed the human soldiers to stay safely on this scorched land under the siege of massive insects.

What was frightening was that even though they knew that the attack had limited effect, countless insects still rushed towards the human soldiers one after another. After the two sides were in a stalemate for half an hour, the human soldiers gave up.

“The energy carried by the Type 6 mecha is only enough to output at full power for two hours, and the Type 9 mecha can only last for one hour. Do you still want to continue to defend here?”

Some soldiers in the internal channel raised questions.

“Currently, the Type 9 mecha is not fully powered, so it can sustain a longer battle. If everyone persists for half an hour, I won’t believe insects are really that brave and fearless of death!”

The captain’s reply was as expected, asking the soldiers to continue fighting. The soldiers could only fight to the death, comforting themselves by thinking, “At least there is no need to escape this time.”

After persisting for half an hour, the mission had to end with the human soldiers returning to the camp because the energy carried by some of the soldier mechas was insufficient.

Especially the type 9 mecha. The operation of the huge mecha and the power of various weapons were all based on sufficient energy. They must reserve enough energy for the return journey.

Faced with repeated requests from the soldiers, the captain finally issued the order to “retreat.”

The retreat was still filled with constant fighting. Massive insects surrounded the human mechas, and they personally “escorted” them back to the camp before finally agreeing to evacuate.

After five hours of hard work and more than an hour of continuous fighting under great concentration and great pressure, the soldiers were once again paralyzed by exhaustion. Once they got back to the camp, they jumped out of the mecha and lay down on the ground to rest.

The good news was that humans only lost three Type 6 mechas in this mission due to improper control.

Compared with the previous missions in which humans lost many companions, this mission could be considered a success. It not only completed the goal of laying metal roads, but also promoted the progress of clearing the oasis, and the losses were controlled within an acceptable range. Inside, many soldiers lying on the ground finally showed their long-lost smiles.

Xia Ruize didn’t smile. On the contrary, his expression was very serious. He sat in the cab of the mecha and carefully checked the various information collected by the mecha during the previous battle.

Based on previous combat experience, there were intelligent commanders behind the massive insects, who would promptly adjust their combat methods based on human performance every time.

Compared to the statement that the insect had no skills and could only rely on numbers to consume human energy, Xia Ruize was more willing to believe that the insects were preparing a big move.

This meant that the difficulty of the next mission may continue to escalate. It wasn’t known what kind of response the insects would take to the HS-9 mecha, a killer weapon brought out by humans.

However, the most important news at the moment was that the support troops promised by the general headquarters had arrived on Erdogan’s planet.

A spaceship landed not far from the camp. A group of soldiers with a strong aura stepped out of the spaceship and walked towards the camp with their heads held high.

There were only ninety soldiers in the support force, but their momentum was stronger than the combined total of the more than 400 ordinary soldiers who were watching them.

“These are the Federation’s front-line special soldiers. The Federation spends a lot of resources and energy to train them. They perform extremely difficult tasks all year round. It is said that the strength of individuals and groups is amazing.”

Liu Wennian’s introduction sounded on the internal channel, with wonder and yearning in his voice.

Xia Ruize observed the special soldiers walking towards the conference room through the screen. They carried a fierce aura tempered by blood and fire, which really made people look forward to their performance.

Watching the special forces soldiers enter the conference room, he turned around and found that the logistics staff were busy maintaining and adding energy to the mechas returning to the camp.

Seeing the actions of the logistics staff and the news they had just learned that the rest time was only one hour, the soldiers suddenly felt a bad premonition.

Soon, the premonition came true, and an order from the headquarters was sent to everyone, requiring the soldiers to gather in the center of the camp and cooperate with the newly arrived special soldiers to perform tasks.

Each squad was re-divided. Sixty of the ninety special soldiers were divided into three squads. The remaining thirty were divided into the original 15 squads in pairs and were responsible for serving as captain and deputy captain. In the squad the original captain later became the vice-captain.

This meant that Xia Ruize, who had just been officially appointed as captain, once again became the vice-captain.

Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian stood side by side, watching the two special forces assigned to their teams come forward.

The leader was a tall, blond, blue-eyed, white-skinned soldier. He walked past Xia Ruize with his chin held high. He glanced down at Xia Ruize, who was a head shorter than him, and snorted contemptuously.

Then he walked to the front of the team, faced all the soldiers in the team, and said in a mocking tone:

“I, Antonio, your captain, have only one requirement for my subordinates, and that is to be obedient.

I want you to be obedient like dogs. If I tell you to go east, you will go east for me. Otherwise, hum, I won’t be able to spare you without the need of others. “

Such words made the soldiers angry in their hearts, and the expressions on their faces couldn’t help but bring out a bit of anger, which made Antonio’s sarcastic smile grow stronger, and he reprimanded unceremoniously:

“A bunch of rubbish. Even a simple exploration mission can kill more than half of them. You might as well wipe your necks to avoid wasting resources!”

The young soldiers were trained with eyes wide open and faces flushed.

Battle on the Insect Planet (9): Show off skills

Cheng Huaiqian and Xia Ruize looked at Liu Wennian with pity in their eyes. The political system in this mission world was called a federation, but in reality it was a system of power and oppression, and the system was inhumane.

In silence, several people walked to the training area.

There were fifty simulators in the training area, most of which were in use.

Liu Wennian and others found an empty simulation cabin and started to try. Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian did not rush forward, but stood aside and observed.

The two were soon surprised to find that some soldiers would leave the simulation capsule within a minute of entering it, so that although there were a small number of simulation capsules, the rotation speed was very fast and there was no feeling of insufficient space.

At this time, a member of the team who was trying out the simulated cabin opened the cabin door, held his head and walked out, sighed, and said in a complicated tone:

“The HS-9 mecha’s compatibility requirements are too high. If the compatibility rate is less than 60%, there is no chance of control.”

Sure enough, he was not the only one there. Several small teams of soldiers walked out of the simulation cabin one after another. After saying hello to Xia Ruize, they went back to rest.

The soldiers who survived to this day were all veterans. They knew that since they couldn’t practice operating mechas, they might as well take the time to rest.

After observing for a while, Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian looked at each other and entered two simulation cabins respectively to prepare for the attempt.

Gao Hexuansi, who had no sense of existence, was not surprised that he was ignored by his teammates. He spontaneously followed the two big guys and chose an empty simulation cabin to get in.

The door of the simulation cabin closed. In the dim light, Xia Ruize’s head was fixed by a helmet. Then the screen in front of him lit up, and a black progress bar with numbers appeared on the simple white background. Xia Ruize did nothing, but saw the progress bar rise from “0” all the way to “60”, and continued to climb, eventually breaking through “100”.

Suddenly, the lights in the simulation cabin brightened, and the white background on the front screen turned into a complex control interface, with densely packed control buttons appearing around the screen.

Xia Ruize blinked and understood what the so-called adaptability rate was testing, which turned out to be mental strength.

The HS-9 mecha was actually controlled by the driver’s mental power and body. To be more precise, the movements of the mecha were controlled by the driver’s mental power, while the use of various weapons and complex movements were controlled and coordinated by the body.

This means that people with insufficient mental strength could not control the mecha to perform the simplest forward and backward movements. This was manifested as insufficient adaptation and they were directly excluded from the simulation cabin.

People like Xia Ruize, who had an extremely high adaptability rate, could easily control the actions of the mecha. Of course, in addition to this, they also need to practice the coordination of mental strength and body.

Xia Ruize practiced in the simulation cabin for three hours before coming out. He felt that he was more proficient in controlling the Type 9 mecha than the Type 6.

After all, he was pushed directly onto the Type 6 Mech without even time to prepare or practice. His experience in operating the Type 6 Mech was entirely based on copying the techniques of soldiers like Liu Wennian and what he learned on his own in battle. He was not given the opportunity to practice systematically and scientifically like the Type 9 Mech.

After all, he was pushed directly onto the Type 6 Mech without even time to prepare or practice. His experience in operating the Type 6 Mech was entirely based on copying the techniques of warriors like Liu Wennian and what he learned on his own in battle. He was not given the opportunity to practice systematically and scientifically like the Type 9 Mech.

When the cabin door was opened, Cheng Huaiqian was already waiting outside. He took out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat off Xia Ruize’s head. Cheng Huaiqian pulled Xia Ruize back to the rest area, took a combat shower, squeezed into the same sleeping box, and soon fell into a deep sleep.

The piercing ringing of the bell forcefully awakened the soldiers in the rest area. When they walked out of the rest area, Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian saw at a glance the more than thirty HS-9 mechas standing at the edge of the camp. Because the HS-9 mechas were eighteen meters high, they were truly huge monsters.

In order to accommodate the newly arrived Type 9 mechas, the camp area was even doubled.

“Wow! So cool!”

Gao Hexuan’s eyes lit up when he saw the Type 9 mecha in reality. He became excited and tried to push the two teammates in front of him to move faster.

Although there was detailed data of 9 types of mechas in the previous simulation cabin, the monotonous numbers were not as shocking as seeing them with your own eyes.

“The team was reorganized again and we had to separate.”

Liu Wennian walked up to Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian and looked at Xia Ruize with reluctance. After getting the team list, he had submitted an application to modify the team, but as expected, it was not approved.

Among the 450 warriors, a total of 32 were qualified to be equipped with HS-9 mechas, so the command re-divided the soldiers into 15 small teams to ensure that each team had two HS-9 mecha operators.

Their original team was naturally forcibly dispersed when four Type 9 mecha operators, Xia Ruize, Cheng Huaiqian, Gao Hexuan and Liu Wennian, appeared at once.

Gao Hexuan was an exception as he was still able to follow Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian, but Liu Wennian was separated. This was really too difficult for him. After all, Liu Wennian had witnessed Xia Ruize’s intuition playing a key role several times with his own eyes, and he was not willing to leave Xia Ruize’s team at all.

“Don’t we have an internal channel? What are you afraid of?”

Cheng Huaiqian righteously put his hand on his lover’s shoulder and took him away, leaving Liu Wennian alone to feel regretful.

When they actually walked in front of the HS-9 mecha and looked up at the huge mecha, Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian couldn’t help but marvel at human technology.

Controlling the mecha controller that he had just obtained, the huge metal mecha’s upper body suddenly half-bent down, and the giant metal hand opened and stretched out in front of the operator. After the operator stepped on it, the mecha’s big hand lifted it up steadily, holding the operator flat in front of the cockpit at the chest of the mecha.

Xia Ruize stepped on the giant metal hand of Type 9 Mecha and walked through three doors into the cockpit. The doors closed one by one. The cockpit was spacious and comfortable, with a driver’s chair, a large screen and an operating console on one side, and a sofa bed for rest on the other side.

Xia Ruize sat in the driver’s seat and put on the helmet on the driver’s seat. The mecha was immediately started, and the lights in the cockpit were all on. The progress bar of the adaptation rate was displayed on the big screen again. After the progress bar quickly rushed to the value of “60”, the picture on the screen changed to the real-time shooting of hundreds of cameras around the mecha.

The Type 9 mecha completely abandoned the natural window, which improved safety while the operator could only rely on cameras, large screens and communication channels to learn about the outside world.

Xia Ruize controlled the huge Type 9 mecha and put it into full motion. The mecha’s long metal legs could move ten meters in one step, and its movements were astonishing. After taking a few steps, he walked out of the protection range of the camp’s protective shield.

Xia Ruize simply walked to the sandy ground a little further away and began to experience what it felt like to actually control a Type 9 mecha.

It has to be said that controlling a Type 9 mecha was much more comfortable than a Type 6 mecha, because the operator himself did not need to bear heavy pressure to run in order to make the mecha run. Xia Ruize now only needed to “want to run” and the mecha would really run.

Xia Ruize sat safely in the driver’s seat, his hands rapidly operating the complex buttons on the interface. On the mecha, the weapons hidden all over the body of the huge mecha flipped over and appeared one by one, and after rotating twice, they flipped over and hid again.

From a distance, it was a truly fascinating show of skill.

Many soldiers who could only control Type 6 mechas showed envy on their faces. Who wouldn’t want to control a powerful and terrifying mecha?

They were now operating Type 6 mechas and dared not get too close to Type 9 mechas, for fear that the operators of Type 9 mechas might accidentally crush the small mechas.

Cheng Huaiqian, Gao Hexuan and Liu Wennian all contacted Xia Ruize as soon as possible and established an internal communication channel.

It was the first time for all four of them to operate a Type 9 mecha, and they had many new experiences to share with each other. Liu Wennian, who always appeared mature and steady, could not hide his excitement in his tone.

Soon, the command sent the new mission to all the fighters’ mechas, and the squad captains received more comprehensive information.

As the captain of the squad, Xia Ruize’s main task was to control the Type 9 mecha and stand guard, watching his soldiers control the Type 6 mecha, and cooperating with the logistics personnel to lay thick metal plates on the ground and connect adjacent metal plates.

According to the mission requirements, they had to build a metal road from the camp all the way to the oasis that had been cleared previously.

The camp’s star network will extend along with the metal plates, which means that wherever the metal plates were laid, the command center would be able to grasp the situation there in real time.

Moreover, there were some weapons hidden under the metal plates. In other words, the road paved with metal plates was a safe passage for humans.

Battle on the Insect Planet (8): Support

Most of the mechas took advantage of the collapse of the wall to pass through the wall, but a few mechas failed to seize the critical opportunity and were blocked by the new wall again.

This location was not within the coverage of the camp’s star network, and there was a delay in information transmission with the camp. would those mechas be able to hold on before new fire support arrived?

Xia Ruize pulled the Sealing Bow while running, and more than ten sealing Arrows shot at the Insect Wall at the same time. After three consecutive rounds, more than forty Sealing Arrows created a small gap in the Insect Wall.

But almost the moment the gap appeared, it was blocked by other insects with their bodies. Xia Ruize’s attack had no effect on the huge insect wall.

In the face of the brutal racial war, Xia Ruize finally realized that human power has its limits, and his heart was filled with a deep sense of powerlessness.

Xia Ruize unknowingly slowed down his running speed because of the attack. Cheng Huaiqian, who had been staying beside him, also slowed down his speed and waved his mecha arm to signal the others to continue returning.

Realizing that he was powerless to change the situation, Xia Ruize turned his head away and stopped looking. Together with Cheng Huaiqian who was accompanying him, he chased his comrades towards the camp.

Finally, the mecha soldiers who escaped from the insect pile wall entered the coverage of the camp star network. From then on, the camp could provide them with real-time fire support and cover their retreat. The soldiers could finally put their minds at ease.

While the soldiers were clearing the oasis, the logistics personnel who stayed behind in the camp did not sit there idly. Instead, they laid connected metal floors on the sandy ground around the camp.

These metal floors were strong and thick, and insects would not be able to dig holes and drill out in the areas covered by the metal floors in the future.

The mecha made a loud “bang bang” sound as it stepped on the metal floor, and finally jumped into the camp.

Finally returning to a safe place, the mecha hatch opened, and the soldiers who jumped out of the cockpit were exhausted. They just lay down on the ground and didn’t care about anything else. Their combat uniforms were soaked with sweat.

Logistics personnel held water pipes and sprayed clean water on the mechas parked in the center of the camp to cool them down. The command center transferred the images recorded by the mechas to quickly analyze the battle situation and count the casualties.

Cheng Huaiqian gently took Xia Ruize back to the rest area, where they washed up and changed into new combat uniforms from the closet. Each of them held a bag of nutrient solution that was high in energy but tasteless, sat on the chairs in front of the rest area, and looked towards the southeast of the camp together.

Knowing that the people left behind were in great danger, Xia Ruize still hoped to see someone return.

Half an hour later, a large number of drones withdrew to the camp, but no mecha appeared in their sight again.

All the soldiers who returned to the camp were summoned to the conference room, which seemed even more empty because more than a hundred soldiers had died in the previous battle. At this time, there were only 450 soldiers left in the conference room.

The atmosphere in the less than half-full conference room was dead silent, and the surviving soldiers showed no joy of surviving the disaster, only numbness.

Ten hours after landing on Erdogan, more than half of the humans were killed or wounded, and the wounded were only a minority. The vast majority of them were killed without a complete body and no remains could be found.

If this trend continued, even if they were still alive now, they may not be alive in a few hours.

The big screen in the conference room was playing footage recorded by a drone of the soldiers passing through the insect wall.

The mechas that were blocked by the new insect wall did not wait for the next round of support from the camp. The giant green insects that had never left the oasis before all came out, and the giant yellow insects on the sand surrounded them from the front and back. The rapidly piled up insect piles continued to squeeze the living space of the human mecha soldiers. Finally, countless “flying insects” knocked all the mechas in the air to the ground.

The drone was still recording. Under the sharp forelimbs of the insects, the mecha was cut into countless pieces. Carrying those pieces, the yellow insects quickly disappeared on the ground, and the green insects returned to the oasis again.

It took less than two minutes to go from a sea of ​​​​insects to an empty space.

A new round of artillery fire from the human camp only blew huge holes in the messy ground, but caused very few casualties to the insects.

Seeing the consequences with their own eyes, some soldiers had tears in their eyes.

In the dead silent conference room, a new picture appeared on the big screen.

The camp sent out a small robot that was good at digging to follow the yellow insects into the ground, trying to track down the yellow insects’ nest.

Based on the images sent back by the robot, humans discovered that more than ten meters underground was a huge tunnel that connected in all directions, and the insects were moving quickly and orderly through the tunnel.

Ten minutes later, the robot was crushed by a passing insect and disappeared from the screen.

But in these ten minutes, a huge underground insect empire had been revealed to humans, with countless passages and countless insects…

On the other hand, the drone that followed the green bug back to the jungle made a more important discovery.

The last scene before the drone was destroyed was deep in the oasis, where huge tree roots were connected and countless vines crisscrossed, together forming a huge insect nest. Countless green giant insects of all sizes were moving back and forth in the nest.

The video ended, and the captain knocked on the table and said loudly:

“Cheer up, little guys. I know you feel a little frustrated, but you have to know that the opponent you are facing is a terrifying enemy that can be ranked among the top in the history of the Alliance’s pioneering records.

We now know that those damn bugs are organized and orderly. They will even change their attack methods based on our performance. In addition, different types of insects have means of communication and the possibility of temporary cooperation.

This series of performances made the commander-in-chief suspect that there were some “intelligent” insects hidden among the insects.

Oh, how horrible, how damn terrible!

Intelligent enemies will make it infinitely more difficult for us to explore this planet!”

The captain cursed a few times in an unhappy tone, but seeing that the atmosphere in the meeting room was still dead and the soldiers had no interest in what he said, he had to change the topic and encourage them:

“Little guys, good news has come. The general command has promised to deploy a large number of special forces soldiers to support our development within ten hours, and to deploy HS-9 heavy firepower all-terrain mecha within five hours to ensure your safety.

Of course, the prerequisite is that you have to control the Type 9 mecha in the simulation cabin in the training area for more than an hour.

Relax, your mission will be simple. In five hours, you will work with the logistics personnel to lay more metal plates and expand the scope of the camp.

Believe me, this is a really easy and safe task.

Well, now you have five hours of rest time. Remember to go to the simulation cabin in the training area to test your compatibility with the Type 9 mecha. I believe you will love the power of the Federation’s most advanced HS-9 mecha.”

Of the good news the captain told the soldiers, only the “support” part interested them at all. The soldiers showed no emotion at all when they heard the rest of the news. They even looked listless when they heard the captain adjourn the meeting and leave the meeting room.

Liu Wennian did not rush to leave the meeting room. Instead, he turned his head to look at Xia Ruize, carefully observing his expression, and finally whispered:

“Although I know you’re not in a good mood, I still suggest that we go to the simulation cabin in the training area to try it out first. If the compatibility with the HS-9 mecha is not good enough, go back and rest. If the compatibility is good enough, it’s best to sacrifice rest time and practice the control of the new mecha.”

Liu Wennian said in a solemn voice:

“The command center is not lying about this. The HS-9 heavy firepower all-terrain mecha is the most advanced of the standard mechas currently equipped by the military. I have never operated one, but I have heard that its control method has undergone major changes and the requirements for the driver are extremely high.”

“They’re equipping us, the half-baked recruits, with a new mecha that even the veterans have never touched. Do they think the previous burial objects were not valuable enough?” Cheng Huaiqian sneered.

According to the information they had received when they first arrived at this mission world, the 1,000 soldiers in this pioneering team were randomly selected by lottery from the entire army, and their strengths varied.

Now, after two rounds of fighting, those who were not strong enough were all eliminated, and then they were asked to change their equipment?

Liu Wennian hesitated for a moment, turned his head and looked around. Those who stayed near them were all comrades who had fought side by side for a whole day and supported each other to escape death many times. He lowered his voice and said:

“The command has a lot of information that has not been made public to us. Among this information, there must be some that has moved the general command and the federal top leaders. Only for this reason will the top leaders decide to deploy special forces and give us more powerful equipment.

The key point is here. As the first people to come into contact with the insects, we are valuable in the eyes of the people above. They will not let us sit idle. They will definitely let us continue to go to the battlefield and use our combat experience to provide reference for those who follow and reduce their casualties.

We cannot refuse the mission, all we can do is to improve our survival as much as possible.”

After Liu Wennian finished speaking, the soldiers around him nodded in agreement.

Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian looked at each other, and Cheng Huaiqian asked tentatively: “Why can’t we refuse?”

He was really confused. More than half of the pioneer team had been killed or wounded, and the remaining soldiers were just depressed, but no one had proposed to refuse the command’s mission. Weren’t these soldiers afraid of death?

The people around looked at Cheng Huaiqian in surprise, and seemed even more puzzled as to why Cheng Huaiqian would ask such a question.

Liu Wennian showed a helpless expression on his face, and first explained to the people around him: “New recruits, new recruits, understand, understand.”

Then he explained to Cheng Huaiqian: “If we die on the battlefield, our families far behind will be well taken care of by the federal government, but if we become deserters, we will be brought to a military court!

Not only will we live a life worse than death, but our families at home will also be implicated, we will lose our jobs, we will not be able to enjoy citizen benefits, and we will be looked down upon by everyone! Do you want your children to be bullied by other children from an early age and not dare to fight back, and always be inferior to others? “

Well, Cheng Huaiqian and Xia Ruize understood that the punishment here was based on collective responsibility, so even though these soldiers knew that the extremely difficult mission would cost them their lives, they had no choice but to act according to their orders.

A group of more than 30 people left the conference room and headed for the training area. While there were few people around, Liu Wennian lowered his voice and told Cheng Huaiqian: “Don’t say that again. You are already standing here. There are ways to prevent you from even going to the military court and keep you here forever, and even label you a deserter.”

Battle on the Insect Planet (7): Upgrade

The camp was higher than the surrounding ground, and in order to rush into the camp, the insects piled up one on top of the other, forming a pile.

The insect pile was high enough, but its flexibility was a bit lacking. Faced with the humans who suddenly rushed out of the protective shield, the insects were trampled into a pile by the humans’ mechas before they could react.

The heavy mechas stepped over them one after another. The insects struggled hard but were unable to overturn the hateful humans on their backs.

According to Liu Wennian’s arrangement, the stronger the soldier, the farther the target insect was from the camp, so a group of mechas moved gracefully towards the periphery of the insects.

A new operating joystick appeared on Xia Ruize’s left hand side in the mecha cockpit. Facing the insects that reacted and surrounded him, he pulled the joystick upwards, and a propeller emerged from the top of the mecha. The power generated by the rotation pulled the mecha to a height of five or six meters above the ground.

This height was the lowest height that the insects could hardly reach. The insects’ forelimbs with bared fangs and claws were waving under the feet of the mecha, while Xia Ruize controlled the joystick with his left hand and the electromagnetic gun with his right hand, easily cutting the target insect below into two halves from head to tail.

Xia Ruize was not the only one. Many soldiers’ first reaction when they were surrounded was to take off into the air and try out the newly installed parts.

In this mission world, although the individual combat power of humans was not as good as that of insects, they had advanced technology and were completely helpless against flying human mechas.

In less than half an hour, all the insects besieging the camp were eliminated, and the humans suffered minimal losses with the help of the flying components.

The commanders of the pioneer team were very satisfied with the result and assigned new tasks to the soldiers.

A detailed topographic map appeared on the mecha screens of all the soldiers. The map showed that there was an oasis 5 kilometers southeast of the camp.

This oasis was discovered by the first team returning to the camp in the morning. There were giant insects blocking the way in the oasis. After finding the insects difficult to get rid of, the team exploring in the corresponding direction immediately returned to the camp to seek support, just in time to catch up with the camp being surrounded.

While the soldiers were resting, the command carefully studied the maps explored by the various teams in the morning, intending to explore other types of terrain and insect situations, so it issued a mission for all soldiers to go out and clear out the oasis.

The soldiers who received the order equipped their weapons and energy boxes, and went out in full force, manipulating the mechas to run towards the target area.

Above them, there were a large number of drones following and observing. These drones would set up communication channels to facilitate the timely transmission of the situation on the front line and new orders from the command center.

The distance of five kilometers was not far. Soon, fifteen teams lined up in a semicircle at the edge of the oasis. Then, each team sent out ten soldiers, who stood side by side in a line, wielding huge axes and vigorously cutting down the trees and vines at the edge of the oasis.

The soldiers who cut down the trees took turns every 20 minutes to ensure that everyone had enough energy and physical strength to deal with any unexpected accidents at any time.

Behind the soldier who was cutting down trees, there were five soldiers holding flamethrowers, who promptly burned away the stumps on the ground.

The remaining twenty or so soldiers stood around and kept alert, guarding against the sudden emergence of insects hiding in the sand and oasis.

The soldiers had a clear division of labor and were very efficient. In the face of the extremely destructive humans, the originally lush oasis was rapidly shrinking in size, revealing large areas of soil that had been scorched black by the raging fire.

A whole hour passed without any attack on the humans, as if there were no insects in the oasis.

This made many soldiers relax, and the command center promptly modified the instructions, increasing the number of soldiers in each team cutting down trees at the same time to fifteen.

In the area that Xia Ruize’s team was in charge of, Xia Ruize was holding a flamethrower and clearing away all the messy branches and leaves on the ground. Looking at a peaceful oasis, he couldn’t help but frown and reminded the soldiers in the team again:

“Everyone be alert. Take off immediately if there is an accident.”

The soldiers responded one after another. Being on this strange and bizarre planet, they would rather believe it than not. Even if some people felt that Xia Ruize was too nervous, they didn’t dare to say anything more when they thought of Xia Ruize’s sharp intuition in the previous few times.

Another hour passed, and just when humans were busy, suddenly, without any warning or prediction, a huge “rustling” sound was heard, and a large number of giant green and yellow insects emerged from the depths of the oasis in front of humans and from under the sand behind them.

These insects rushed into the crowd at the fastest speed. It only took two or three seconds from the time they appeared to the time they rushed to the front.

“Alert!”

Xia Ruize’s reminder echoed throughout the exploration team’s internal channels at the same time as the insect appeared. His soldiers, who had been repeatedly reminded by him, jumped up as if by reflex. Without even seeing the situation clearly, they had already manipulated the joystick to launch the mecha into the air.

When everyone really took off and saw the images of the surrounding insects on the mecha screen, they felt their hearts were gripped by invisible fear.

Because there were more than a thousand insects emerging from the oasis and the sand! They all gathered in this small area, densely packed, ferocious and terrifying!

The soldiers who were always alert and quick to react successfully controlled the mecha to take off under Xia Ruize’s reminder, but there were still some soldiers who relaxed their vigilance before and failed to react immediately. In almost an instant, their mechas were buried by countless insects, and others didn’t know how to start if they wanted to save them.

In the end, only about 500 fighters successfully took off and escaped from the ground. The mechas of the remaining dozens of people lost contact signals in a very short time, and no matter how the other fighters called out, there was no response.

The soldiers who took off had no time to pay attention to their lost companions. They found that they were not completely out of danger because the insects had developed new ways of fighting against human flying parts.

A large number of insects were seen rushing in the same direction, quickly forming a huge pile of insects. The insects that rushed to the highest point of the pile, stepping on their companions’ bodies, leaped towards the human mecha with all their might.

It only took two or three seconds for a pile of insects to appear from nothing. If not careful, a mecha that failed to dodge in time may be caught up by the flying insects.

The insects seemed to have no fear of pain and rammed their bodies into the propellers. Once the propellers were destroyed, the human mechas would lose balance and fall to the ground.

As for the humans, even though their weapons were powerful, there were simply too many enemies. The endless stream of insects meant that no matter how many enemies the humans killed, the number of enemies did not decrease, and the number of insects continued to increase.

Moreover, as the battle continued, the insects cooperated more and more tacitly, and the speed of piling up the insect piles became faster and faster. Countless insect piles were piled up around the human mechas. Looking around, the surrounding sky was filled with not only human mechas, but also insects flying all over the sky.

The human warriors were exhausted both physically and mentally as they had to attack and control their mechas to dodge the “flying insects” nimbly, and subconsciously moved towards the camp.

“Keep climbing! Retreat! Return to camp!”

The retreat order from the command center was finally transmitted through the information channel built with drones distributed along the way as relays.

The soldiers who were already struggling hard in the sea of ​​insects immediately raised the height of the mecha to ten meters, which was the maximum height that the temporarily installed flying parts could withstand.

The soldiers who had temporarily escaped the siege of insects pushed the control joystick to the front and flew towards the camp.

But the insects clearly weren’t going to let them go.

A huge number of insects were running wildly below the humans, and as they ran they did not forget to pile up huge and tall insect piles. Countless insects were recklessly stepping on their own kind and rushing towards the humans.

Even if it fell to the ground, it would become the cornerstone of the next insect pile, helping other companions to continue attacking.

The human soldiers struggled to manipulate the joysticks, desperately trying to avoid the insects flying from all directions.

Even worse, when humans finally evacuated the scorched earth area they had cleared, they discovered that on the sandy ground in the distance, thousands of insects had piled up high and long interception nets, like a city wall, blocking the humans’ way back to the camp.

“Fuck!”, “god!”, “Oh my god!”…

The internal channel was suddenly filled with angry curses. The soldiers looked at the insect wall in front of them, which was more than ten meters high and higher than the flying altitude of their mechas, and they were about to spit out blood.

“Call for support! Requesting for covering fire! Repeat! Requesting for covering fire!”

The captains of each team frantically sent distress signals back to the camp.

While waiting for the signal to be transmitted, the captains also needed to comfort their soldiers:

“Control your mechas well and don’t get dragged down by the insects. Don’t worry, the camp won’t abandon us.”

In less than a minute, dozens of shells were fired accurately at the insect wall, and with a “boom” sound, the insect wall collapsed and shattered.

“Hurry, hurry, hurry! Retreat now!”

Xia Ruize struggled to stabilize the mecha in the shock wave of the explosion, and rushed to the original location of the insect wall without caring that the smoke from the explosion had not yet dissipated.

The shock wave affected the team’s signal, and his words were transmitted intermittently to the mechas of other soldiers.

In the chaotic situation, the soldiers who were familiar with Xia Ruize followed him and rushed to the center of the explosion. The extremely high temperature around them made the metal mechas also burn hot. The temperature regulator in the cockpit worked hard, but the soldiers were immediately covered in sweat.

In the critical moment, no one bothered to wipe the sweat off even if it dripped into their eyes. They were all trying their best to control the mechas and rush towards the camp.

Finally, the dust broke out. The only good news was that in order to block the human mechas, the nearby insects built an insect wall. As a result, not many insects actually passed through the insect wall and chased after the mechas.

“Let’s run.”

Xia Ruize listened to the shrill alarm coming from the mecha’s central control. All parts of the mecha were damaged to varying degrees. In order to make the flying parts lighter for use at critical moments, Xia Ruize suggested landing and running back to the camp.

He looked at the ground below. Although there were many holes on the ground, no insects came out of the holes. It seemed that the insects underground had gone to build a bug wall.

“good!”

“Okay!” Cheng Huaiqian, who had been following Xia Ruize, responded immediately. Several mechas landed behind the two of them and ran towards the camp. The speed of controlling the mechas was no slower than flying.

While running, Xia Ruize couldn’t help but turn his head and look behind him.

In the back, the smoke from the explosion finally dissipated, revealing a new insect wall, which was quickly built by the surviving insects on the corpses of their own kind.

Battle on the Insect Planet (6): Meritorious Service

With the return of various teams, the camp gained sufficient combat power and the defensive pressure on the soldiers was greatly reduced.

All the logistics personnel were freed from the front line, and with the help of some soldiers, the attack function of the planetary resource station was finally installed and started smoothly.

The high-powered weapons deployed at the resource station were instantly activated, launching a covering and intensive bombing outside the camp’s protective shield. After three rounds, all 300 giant insects around the camp were blown to pieces.

In addition, the holes made by the giant yellow insects were also bombed with great precision. After half an hour, the area around the camp was bombed into a pile of holes. The insects that besieged the camp finally retreated completely and never appeared again.

The enemy disappeared, and the soldiers in the camp breathed a sigh of relief.

The bad news was that of the twenty exploration teams sent out by the camp, only eighteen returned, and there was no news of the other two teams.

The camp sent out drones to search for it, but found no clues, not even the wreckage of the mecha, so it seemed that the situation was not good.

The 18 returning teams also had reductions in personnel. In total, during the first operation to land on Erdogan’s planet, nearly 300 humans were killed and 100 were injured in the morning. Currently, there were only a little over 600 combat forces left in the camp.

After the battle, the soldiers rested quietly in the mecha cockpit for a while, and then took action. With the joint efforts of many soldiers, it took another two hours, and the foundation of the planetary resource station was finally completely stabilized, and all functions were installed.

Planetary resource stations were indeed the best guarantee for pioneering exploration and alien survival, but the entire resource station was large in size and had many functional areas, so it took enough time to install and start up.

Previously, the insects on Erdogan’s planet did not give humans enough time.

Now the resource station was fully operational, the enemies had retreated, the wounded had received professional treatment, and the others had some free time to look around. They truly realized that this horrible planet caused their men to lose nearly half of their personnel on the first day of their landing.

At this time, all the buildings in the camp were lifted into the air and stayed at a height of three meters from the ground. The ground of the camp was covered with solid metal floors, which worked together with the protective shield to prevent insects from breaking into the camp.

The campsite and its sky were surrounded by a thin shield. The shield was weaker in terms of protection and was mainly used for warning. The advantage was that it consumed less energy and could be kept open for a long time around the clock.

In the safe camp, the soldiers finally dared to open the hatch of the mecha and jumped out to get some fresh air.

The damaged mechas were repaired by their own logistics personnel, and the other mechas were also sent to the logistics department for inspection and maintenance. The exhausted warriors walked into the conference room holding nutrient solutions.

The conference room, which was originally designed to accommodate thousands of people, now only has more than 600 people sitting in it, making it seem quite empty.

The large screen at the front of the conference room displayed images brought back by various exploration teams. Everyone could easily see that no matter whether the exploration teams encountered deserts, oases, swamps, valleys, and other terrains, the common point was that they all encountered insects, all kinds of giant insects.

“Based on the video footage you brought back, the command has determined that these insects are the natives of this world. What we have to do next is to deal with them.

Initial speculation is that these insects have a unified command, so each time an insect will appear first to launch a tentative attack. It seems that the insects are also observing our strength.

Second, these insects have clear territorial boundaries, and no insect has been observed to leave the area where it first appeared.

These insects are huge in size, have strong shells, sharp limbs, and are extremely fast. Only the connection points between the various parts of their bodies are relatively fragile. The color of their bodies is similar to their environment, which has a confusing effect.

The most difficult thing is that there are too many of these natives! ”

The screen showed a series of terrifying scenes of hundreds of insects besieging dozens of humans.

After analyzing the current situation and difficulties, the captain changed his tone and began to soothe:

“Everyone, rest assured. We have already contacted the headquarters outside the planet and reported all the information we have collected today. The headquarters has mobilized support forces and guarantees that there will be follow-up troops to make up for our losses.

Secondly, the general command boldly speculated that these natives had a huge flaw, which was that they could not pose a threat from the air.

So far, we haven’t seen any insects with flying capabilities. The general command has decided to equip everyone’s mecha with flying parts. If you encounter insects in the future, you can try to attack them from the air.”

The captain of the pioneer team brought two pieces of good news to the soldiers, which finally made the atmosphere in the meeting room no longer so depressing and dull.

“There is another piece of good news. The General Command has opened the merit record and redemption function for us. Your performance in battle and your contribution to the development process will receive corresponding merit points. The General Command has specially approved that the redemption list of these merit points will definitely make you excited.”

After comforting them, the captain gave out tempting rewards, guiding the soldiers to look at the merit points recorded on the mecha controllers on their wrists, as well as a partial merit point redemption list.

Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian put their heads together, Xia Ruize got 104 merit points and Cheng Huaiqian got 36 points, which seemed to be allocated according to their previous performance in the battle.

Cheng Huaiqian, who had previously performed low-key, received relatively few merit points, while Xia Ruize, who performed outstandingly in the camp defense battle, received considerable merit point rewards.

Of course, what they were more concerned about was the merit point redemption list.

They were not familiar with the others, but the “HS-6 Multi-Functional Mecha” they drove in the morning was on the redemption list. With 500 merit points, they could get a mecha that belonged to them personally.

This redemption list aroused the interest of both of them. Cheng Huaiqian scrolled to the end of the list to see if he could redeem a spaceship.

“Okay, the rest area is ready for everyone. We’ll give you three hours to rest and adjust your condition. There will be more challenges waiting for us later.”

The summary meeting ended with the captain’s encouragement. The soldiers had been fighting for most of the day and really needed some rest, so they rushed to the accommodation area.

There were capsule sleeping boxes in the rest area, and there was no mandatory arrangement of positions. Soldiers could sleep wherever they wanted. Fortunately, there was a washing area in the rest area, so you could take a good shower before going to bed.

The soldiers from the same squad gathered around Xia Ruize and Liu Wennian involuntarily. Liu Wennian looked at Xia Ruize and found that Xia Ruize was also staring at him, so he had to persuade him:

“Since you have time to rest, take the opportunity to rest well. You don’t know when you will be able to rest next time, so don’t dwell on the past.”

The experienced soldiers knew the value of rest time during a mission, so they put aside all distractions and fell asleep quickly. The new recruits were restless, but lying alone in the narrow sleeping box, they turned over and over a few times and fell asleep unknowingly.

After taking a shower, Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian squeezed into the same sleeping box. They could smell each other’s scent and soon fell into a deep sleep peacefully.

Unfortunately, before they could rest for three hours, a shrill alarm sounded throughout the rest area, along with the captain’s announcement:

“Alert! insects are attacking the camp! All soldiers, board your mechas immediately! Prepare to fight!”

The soldiers who switched from sleeping to awake state in an instant rushed out of the rest area. The logistics personnel were opening the door to the mecha maintenance area. Rows of mechas that had been maintained were neatly arranged waiting for users to board.

What attracted people’s attention even more was the protective shield around the camp. It had been transformed from a life-sealing shield with no killing power to an electromagnetic shield with offensive power. The electromagnetic light was so bright that black smoke came out of the giant insects that rushed onto the shield.

“Hurry up!”

At the captain’s urging voice, Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian withdrew their gazes, found their respective mechas and rushed over.

While running, he manipulated the mecha’s hatch to open, took off, and used the mecha’s metal arm to jump directly into the hatch. Before the hatch was completely closed, the mecha had already started up and walked out of the maintenance area.

As the well-prepared warriors arrived at their respective defensive positions, the camp’s protective shield once again transformed into a life-sealing shield mainly for defense, and the soldiers were finally able to see the situation outside the camp clearly.

Xia Ruize and Cheng Huaiqian stood together, followed by Liu Wennian and Gao Hexuan. This time, the camp was still surrounded by giant yellow-colored insects, but their number was not as terrifying as before, only about three hundred.

The captain explained why he did not use high-powered weapons to bomb directly, but instead called on the soldiers to fight in person:

“There aren’t many insects besieging the camp this time, so this is a good opportunity for you to improve your combat experience. We have re-divided everyone into fifteen teams. Each team only needs to deal with about twenty insects. I believe you can handle it well.”

After saying that, lasers were fired outward from all around the base, forcibly dividing the area around the base into fifteen areas, with more or less twenty insects in each area.

Amid the soldiers’ surprised expressions, the captain said:

“In one minute, the shield in front of you will be closed. Good luck!”

“Each of you check to see if the flight parts are loaded. If not, just fly. It should be noted that the flight parts are difficult to control, so you must master the balance.

I will send you the target map later. Two people against one bug. We have the advantage in numbers, so it won’t be difficult to solve. Remember to cover each other.”

Liu Wennian’s voice rang out in the team channel. Because the number of casualties was not large, their team still had the original members. Everyone had a tacit understanding with each other. After listening to Liu Wennian’s battle instructions, they all turned their attention to Xia Ruize.

Xia Ruize said in a relaxed tone, “With your back to the camp, safety shouldn’t be a big problem. Be careful not to stray too far from the camp.”

Upon hearing Xia Ruize’s tone, even though the battle had not yet begun, the soldiers felt a lot more relaxed. They were really afraid of hearing Xia Ruize say something “not so good” because that would mean their situation would really be bad.

When the minute was almost up, a new life-sealing shield appeared behind the soldiers, protecting the camp. When the minute was up, the shield in front of the mecha disappeared on time.

Almost at the same time, Liu Wennian, Xia Ruize, Cheng Huaiqian and a dozen experienced soldiers controlled the mechas and rushed out, and the insects even became their stepping stones.

Battle on the Insect Planet (5): Return

Liu Wennian reported the news of the team’s return to the camp. The captain who stayed behind in the camp quickly issued a new order, requiring them to rescue the camp at full speed according to the provided coordinates.

When the anxious people were still two kilometers away from the camp, the soldiers standing on a small sand slope finally saw what was happening in the camp. Nearly a thousand giant yellow-colored insects were besieging the temporary human camp.

All the spaceships that had landed in the surroundings had disappeared, leaving only a lonely metal building in the center of the camp. Fortunately, this building released a huge belt-shaped protective shield to wrap around the camp.

However, the protective shield was shaking constantly under the fierce impact of numerous insects, and it looked precarious, as if it would break at any time.

The soldiers in the protective shield were fighting back with all their might, but the number of enemies surrounding the camp was simply too large. There were only about a hundred soldiers left in the camp and two small teams coming back for support. Even if the logistics personnel who could barely fight were included, there were only more than two hundred people.

The enemy was numerous and they were few, so it was difficult to counterattack. They mainly relied on the protective shield to resist the siege of the insect swarm.

The coordinates provided by the captain barely avoided being surrounded by insects and could still be used to enter and exit the camp. However, the current situation in the camp made everyone retreat. Did they really want to take the initiative to rush into the encirclement of insects?

“Captain Xia, Captain Liu, are we really going to go back?” A soldier asked hesitantly, “Why do I feel like that gap was left there intentionally by those bugs?”

The team was currently standing at a higher position, and could see the situation below more clearly. The insects seemed to understand the strategy of surrounding three and blocking one.

“My suggestion is to go back. As long as there is enough energy support, the camp’s life-protection shield can last for a long time. Besides, the command center is in the camp. Just in case, we still have to rely on the command center to contact the outside world and call for a spaceship to leave this planet.”

Liu Wennian knew that Xia Ruize lacked combat experience, so he immediately explained his reasons in detail. However, after he finished speaking, he also looked at Xia Ruize, waiting for Xia Ruize’s decision. He had finally figured it out. No matter how rich his experience was, he would still be a little short of the mark if he didn’t have someone else’s intuition.

“Then let’s go back.”

Xia Ruize made the final decision with one blow. The soldiers of the squad no longer hesitated and followed Liu Wennian, rushing towards the surrounded camp with all their strength.

The camp also saw the returning team and quickly helped to clear the insects in the corresponding direction. With the joint efforts of both sides, Xia Ruize and others successfully approached the protective shield.

Then they saw that there was a gap in the protective shield in front of them. After people were let in, the shield was immediately filled up, blocking the insects that wanted to rush in from behind.

“Hurry, hurry, hurry! Leave the southwest defense to your team. Don’t worry about saving energy. Get rid of the insects that are besieging the base as soon as possible. The insects’ weak point is the connection between their head and body, which is relatively fragile. Once it breaks, they won’t be able to survive for long.”

The officer who came to pick them up took the squad of soldiers to the corresponding defense zone, gave them some instructions, and quickly took the wounded they brought back and left.

With one more team coming back to support, the defense pressure on the camp could be reduced, and those logistics personnel who were forced to stay on the front line could withdraw to continue building the unfinished planetary resource station.

Liu Wennian quickly arranged a new formation, with the soldiers standing in two rows in a staggered pattern to attack the insects outside the protective shield.

“Once the life-blocking shield is opened, living things cannot pass through. We can launch our attacks, but we must also be careful of the attacks of the enemies outside.”

After the explanation, Liu Wennian raised the high-energy electromagnetic shock gun and shot at the insects outside the protective shield that were hitting the protective shield with their bodies.

It had to be said that being in the protection of the camp shield, everyone felt a lot more relaxed. At least they didn’t need to defend all directions around them, nor did they need to worry about the energy they carry with them being consumed. They just needed to focus on attacking the enemy in front of them.

Naturally, there were soldiers specifically responsible for logistics who moved boxes of energy blocks to the rear of the squad’s position.

The only thing they needed to worry about was whether the camp would fall along with it after the energy stored in the camp was exhausted.

Putting aside their long-term concerns, after constant practice, the soldiers discovered that a group of four soldiers attacking in a cross-direction could quickly break a giant insect into pieces.

Because the yellow giant insects knew very well where their weaknesses were. Their small heads and key joints were always hidden behind their sharp forelimbs or inside their hard shells, making it difficult for humans to attack their heads directly.

The soldiers could only use the electromagnetic beams emitted by the electromagnetic gun to decompose the insect’s limbs, and even completely decompose the huge insect into pieces before they could get rid of it.

Of course, this method of attack wasted time and energy, and elite soldiers with higher combat skills would still try to attack the weak points of the insects.

After many attempts, Xia Ruize gave up the electromagnetic gun on the mecha arm and pulled the sealing bow instead.

Because although the electromagnetic gun was called a “gun”, it was very different from the “gun” on Blue Star. It shot electromagnetic beams instead of bullets.

This meant that as long as the user kept holding the trigger, the electromagnetic beam emitted from the muzzle would continue to extend along a straight line. Wherever the beam reached along the way was the attack range, and the beam would continue to exist until the user let go.

The advantage of such a high-energy electromagnetic shock gun was its strong attack power, but its disadvantage was that its attack was very inflexible, the attack distance was long, the attack time was long, and it consumed a lot of energy.

Xia Ruize felt that the electromagnetic gun was not very useful, so he pulled out the more convenient Sealing Bow. Without waiting for the insect to reveal its weak spot, he shot directly at the insect’s head. The Sealing Arrow with a flexible trajectory would bypass the insect’s forelimbs that protected its head and directly attack the insect’s head, completely stopping the insect’s movement.

After becoming more proficient, Xia Ruize would cooperate with his comrades to shoot several sealing arrows at the same time to lure away the tough and strong forelimbs of several insects, and other comrades would take the opportunity to attack the vulnerable joints exposed by the insects.

After all, the IQ of insects was still not as good as that of humans. After Xia Ruize and others grasped their weaknesses, the speed of eliminating insects was greatly improved.

In the rear, the logistics personnel who were good at building camps rather than fighting withdrew from the front line. After working against the clock, they finally installed the exploration function of the resource station and opened it smoothly.

Dozens of drones were released from the camp. Some of them followed the mission directions of each team and tried to find people and recall the soldiers to the camp, while some hovered over the camp and sent the situation around the camp to the mechas of all soldiers.

Not long after, a mobilization message was sent to Xia Ruize’s mecha. The captain asked him to immediately go to the newly built lookout tower in the camp, stand on a high place, and be responsible for supporting more directions.

“Every shot of the high-energy electromagnetic shock gun is energy. The longer the shooting distance, the greater the energy consumption, so it can only be considered a short-range, high-power weapon. But the Sealing Bow is different. It consumes less energy. The longer the shooting distance, the greater the power. It can be considered a true medium- and long-range weapon.”

Liu Wennian helped Xia Ruize explain: “The command must have discovered that you are good at controlling the Sealing Bow, so they transferred you to be a mobile team member.”

While explaining, Liu Wennian sighed in his heart that some people’s talents really make people envious and jealous!

The Sealing Bow was actually a relatively useless weapon in the military. It was incredibly powerful, but the difficulty of controlling it was too high. “Sealing” meant that it sealed cell movement and killed cell vitality. No creature could resist such an effect.

But compared to its actual combat application, this weapon was destined to be a private collection of researchers. After all, asking a soldier to draw a bow and shoot an arrow was not only slow but also very laborious. In a rapidly changing battle situation, who would shoot arrows slowly?

But now Liu Wennian saw with his own eyes a man who could draw a bow and shoot arrows at an astonishing speed. What was even more astonishing was that he could actually shoot several arrows at the same time, aiming at multiple targets without affecting each other? !

Liu Wennian was speechless except for envy, jealousy and hatred.

Liu Wennian helped Xia Ruize point out the location of the observation deck. Not far behind them, there was a simple temporary support.

After the logistics personnel took action, they built lookouts on the four sides of the camp, allowing soldiers who were good at long-range combat to attack the insects outside the protective shield from a high position more easily.

Xia Ruize approached the observation tower as ordered, and controlled the mecha to jump onto the temporary metal platform. After three jumps, he was standing higher than the height of the protective shield. He could see the entire battlefield outside the camp at a glance, and the sand in the distance was constantly churning, and giant yellow-colored insects were jumping out of the holes in the ground.

The metal mecha used its arms to pull open a huge bow. As the bow became larger and larger, three energy arrows formed on the bow and were rapidly propelled out by the huge force. In the blink of an eye, three giant yellow insects that had just jumped out of the cave entrance were broken by the necks.

The three insects fell before they could fully jump up, blocking the entrance to the hole, and the insects behind them were also unable to rush out immediately.

Xia Ruize’s mouth curled up in pleasure, staring at the hole. The moment the insects jumped out of the hole, their bodies stretched out, unable to hide their short and fragile necks, it was a good opportunity to attack.

Several waves of giant yellow-colored insects died the moment they jumped out of the burrows. The insects were forced to dig new burrows in other places. However, Xia Ruize, who was high above, had an excellent vision. His arrows would follow wherever the insects’ burrows were.

The commanders in the camp soon noticed Xia Ruize’s excellent performance and quickly arranged for the logistics personnel to continue to raise the temporary metal support under Xia Ruize. They also transferred the command authority of the two drones to Xia Ruize so that he could find the right viewing angle.

With the cooperation of logistics, Xia Ruize ensured that no new insects were added to the southern area under his charge within ten minutes. His superb archery skills attracted the attention of the soldiers in the battle.

Cheng Huaiqian was very proud of it. If it wasn’t an emergency, he would definitely show off his lover.

Without the endless stream of bugs popping up, the soldiers realized that the enemies outside the shield were finally not endless and seemed invincible no matter how hard they tried to kill them.

The decrease in the number of insects surrounding the camp made people feel happy and hopeful. At this moment, a mecha squad appeared in the distance. What made people in the camp nervous was that the number of mechas was obviously abnormally small, and most of them were in poor condition. Some of the broken wires were exposed.

This was the fourth exploration team to return to the camp. Xia Ruize, who was standing on a high place, could see at a glance that of the 45 soldiers in the team who went out, only 35 returned, and each mecha had defects and was in urgent need of maintenance and repair.

Xia Ruize fired four rounds of forty arrows in succession in the direction of the team’s return, helping them clear a passage back to the camp. After watching them being picked up by the logistics soldiers and entering the camp, he no longer paid any attention to them and continued to focus on cleaning up the newly emerged holes.

As the team returned, their experience soon became known to everyone. What they encountered was a swamp that looked no different from sand. What was even more terrifying was that there were insects in the swamp.

The return of this team also marked the beginning of the collective return of various exploration teams. Next, teams continued to return to the camp at a frequency of five to ten minutes. To the surprise of the soldiers in the camp, the later the team returned, the worse the condition of the team.

Half an hour later, the last returning team was reduced to only ten people.

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.