Zheng jumped. The others couldn't use their weapons so they were fragile in front of this tanker bug. This bug appeared quite suddenly. Lan had been monitoring the underground the whole time. Yet she didn't discover this tanker bug. Zheng also didn't sense it as he was connected in soul link the whole time. Which meant this bug was masked by another psyche force user. It was an attack by the other team!
Zheng ran as he said in urgency. "Lan, mask this whole group even if it reduces your scan range. Fuck, we were too careless. They have been waiting for us to put down our weapons!"
"We were indeed careless... We had been holding our weapons so they didn't bother masking the bugs even when they knew of our location. The bugs weren't a threat to us unless they came in hundreds of hopper bugs. So they waited for us to merge into this group and masked the bugs that were going to attack us. Good strategy..." Xuan murmured.
The team looked at the tanker bug from afar. They had no choice but to dodge away. These federation weapons would merely scratch the tanker bug. Furthermore, since it unburrowed in the middle of the group, they couldn't use the tactical nukes. Everyone was scattering. Every time the tanker bug sprayed flame, a few to a dozen people were burned to ashes. More and more bugs were coming out of the hole where the tanker bug unburrowed.
Xuan said in a low voice. "Wait and see. If necessary, we will wipe the area. Kill all the bugs and humans here, then find a way to merge into Platoon 6. It seems like there might be a change of plot that the Roughnecks die here. I am curious though if that other team will obtain points and rewards for the Roughnecks' death."
"Now is not the time to think about these. Find a way to escape first!"
Zheng over and heard Xuan calmly analyzed while the tanker bug was spraying flame at people. He didn't seem like he was in a battlefield but rather discussing in a classroom. When Zheng came over to them, Xuan suddenly asked. "Do you still remember how the main character killed the first tanker bug in the movie?"
He was going to run with the team but this question stopped him. Zheng nodded. "You wouldn't want me to go fight with Tiger's Soul? Even though it can easily kill the tanker bug but don't you think that's out of a normal person's capability? Slicing a ten meter bug in halves with a sword?"
Xuan waved his hand and said sarcastically. "Not telling you to do that. What you need to do is use a normal weapon, jump on its back, and shoot it. Shoot a hole in its back then throw a normal grenade in. Bang. You will become a sergeant or even a sergeant major. This identify is helpful to our following actions."
"You are not wrong but..." Zheng pointed to the tanker bug and said. "You want me to kill this tanker bug while only showing strength that a normal person should have? And why does that sarcastic look on your face seemed to be saying 'You have a fifty percent chance of dying'?"
Xuan's expression didn't change. "Correct. Judging by the speed these bugs are coming out of the ground, you have a seventy percent chance of dying if you go to kill the tanker bug unless you use Explosion and Tiger's Soul. In two minutes, you won't be able to even get close to the tanker bug. Make your choice. Oh, and in order to get the lieutenants' attentions, see the grenade on that lieutenant's waist? Go grab it and use it to kill the tanker bug. The usual rules. Try your best. When it gets too dangerous, kill everyone here with Tiger's Soul."
Zheng smiled bitterly. No matter how long it had been, Xuan's plans were still similarly crazy, but it was also the most beneficial plan. He took a deep breath and sprint toward the lieutenant.
(A normal person's strength can't jump so high. Limit to 30% qi usage. Use the movement technique to assist. Then... fight for our lives!)
Zheng's physical stats were much higher than a normal person, especially in strength and speed. The addition of the movement technique allowed him to sprint over to the lieutenant in just a few seconds. He grabbed the grenades on the lieutenant's waist and charged away during his shock.
The lieutenant reacted instantly. He was only shocked for a moment then gave a shout as loud as he can. "Fuck! Everyone clear him a way! Kill all the bugs on the ground!" He raised his assault rifle and shot the eyes of a bug.
These troopers around were obviously elites. These should be the remaining troopers of the Roughnecks. They immediately focused fire on bugs on the ground. They had incredible accuracy, getting the bugs' eyes and mouth with almost every shot. Many bugs were killed off in this shooting.
Zheng entered the third stage of the unlocked mode as he ran. He recalled YingKong's movements and ran along those miraculous steps. Though he was quite troubled that he couldn't run at full speed. He had to control himself as he ran. This short distance of not even a hundred meters took him twenty seconds since he had to ran around in left and right. He jumped on a bug's corpse and used it to jump further. Three meters high got him close to the tanker bug's leg.
The troopers held their breaths as they all stared at him. What people in a war of despair needed weren't bullets or weapons but a hope. The Roughnecks were one such hope. And now, Zheng was another hope. Everyone was hoping for a miracle. No one actually believed Zheng could kill this tanker bug but they still screamed from within.
Kill it!
Zheng had to swallow the bitterness himself. It wasn't that he couldn't climb up to the tanker bug, all it took was a flip but that was out of a normal person's capability. Fighting with a performance of a normal person was more difficult than fighting at full strength... The feeling of not being able to use his strength was terrible.
He pulled out the army knife and stabbed it into the bug's exoskeleton. He flipped himself up while he pulled out the knife and stabbed again. After three repetitions, he got on the bug's back. The bug moved violently as it seemed to understood what was happening. This bumping was useful against normal people but not to someone in the unlocked mode. Information of the bumping entered his head and he quickly balanced himself.
Zheng held the rifle on the bug's exoskeleton and held the trigger. No matter how weak this rifle was, its destructiveness will accumulate with such concentrated impacts. The rifle finally broke the exoskeleton after several seconds. Zheng pulled the ring from the grenade without a second thought and threw it down. He jumped off the tanker bug while the bug charged around. He rolled on the ground and hit a warrior bug's teeth. Those teeth immediately punctured his right arm. At the same time, a big explosion came from behind.
“Good! Survivor from Platoon 4? We have about a hundred from Platoon 4 here but Platoon 4, 5 and 6 are supposedly all new recruits. Your actions are more experienced than even the veterans. Many of the sergeants in my Platoon died and we are missing a sergeant major. You will take his place before you die. Zheng, organize the troops to advance!”
Lieutenant Jean Razak ordered the troopers to save Zheng from the bugs after he blew up the tanker bug. The group backed off as they continued firing. Once they got further away, he ordered the troopers to bomb the hole with tactical nuke. A loud blast and mushroom cloud collapsed this bug hole.
Zheng wasn’t in a great condition. The bug’s teeth punctured his arm and bone. He couldn’t move his right arm in a short period of time despite his insane recovery. Damage on the bone needed at least a day to recovery.
He left a great impression to Jean Razak for taking the risk at such a dangerous situation. Not only did he killed the tanker bug but also saved this group from collapsing. So the lieutenant assigned him to the sergeant major position temporarily and promoted him to corporal.
Unfortunately, Zheng was terrible at commanding a large army. He had experience leading a group of several or a dozen like a special force unit leader. So he handed off the responsibility to Xuan, Kampa, and WangXia. These three who were from the army performed much better than him.
“Fools.” Xuan sneered at the federal armed force. Those idiotic politicians and generals ordered an invasion against the bugs with infantry. The bugs had an advantage fighting with their bodies. There were also barely any heavy firearms and mechanical units. All the advantage they could get from artillery, air force, and high tech weapons were none existent. This army was basically sent here to die.
“That was not the only thing. This army doesn’t even have the basic rules of an army. This is unbelievable. Such an army couldn’t exist in the real world. There’s definitely something we don’t know about the history of this world. You can use your identity as the corporal to look it up in the internet after we go back. I want to find out what caused this.” Xuan held his hand under his chin and murmured.
“You are not wrong but we should deal with the current situation first. What did Platoon 6 said?” Zheng smiled bitterly.
Xuan said. “They have 8600 people left. However, 3000 in the back are caught in the fight with the bugs. At most 5000 will meet up with us. The majority of this group are injured or lost the will to fight. If we get surrounded again, there’s an 80% chance of getting killed if we don’t run with the Sky Sticks.”
Zheng nodded and turned to Lan. “Did you find the other group’s location. Since they used psyche force to mask the bugs, they shouldn’t be too far away. Or is their psyche force user more powerful than you? That doesn’t seem possible.”
Lan nodded. “20km away. There’s an area 500 meters under the ground that I can’t scan. However, a lot of bugs near that area is coming at us. You wouldn’t be planning to run over and attack them?”
Lonely and tire?
Gando smoked the cigarette quietly. For some reason, he was scared of looking at Zheng after hearing this. The feeling was difficult to describe. Like he was afraid of obtaining something or hoping to obtain something impossible. He headed to the center of the group following their plan and continued protecting Lan.
But... lonely and tire?"
The group kept on going. The Roughnecks finally met up with the majority of Platoon 6. There were about 5000 troopers remaining as Xuan had expected. 40% of them still had their weapons and could fight. 2000 uninjured. The rest either were injured or threw away their weapons. Johnny Rico was unconscious due to loss of blood. Xuan somehow found him from the several hundred people. His leg had a puncture by bug teeth but unfortunately, he didn't have the same recovery rate as Zheng. His life was at risk if he couldn't get treatment within twelve hours.
The highest ranked officer among the group was a major. Though this major also fell unconscious. His whole arm got torn off. The officers of both groups came to a conclusion and handed command to Razak. Thus, Zheng became a sergeant major of both groups and his military rank rose to sergeant. He was allowed to join in on the officer meetings.
"Are these the squad leaders you assigned?" Razak tapped Zheng's shoulder and pointed at Xuan who was speaking to several troopers and Kampa and Wangxia who were picking gunners and scouts. He seemed interested in these three troopers.
Zheng nodded. "Yes. They escaped the sea of bugs with me."
Razak said. "Let them know that they are corporals until they die. And get in touch with the starship. Tell those assholes to send in rescue ships or see report of the army annihilated!"
Zheng smiled bitterly. He got an idea of the situation through soul link. There are still functioning communication devices in Platoon 6 but all the starships they could reach either ran away or destroyed. There was no sending in rescue ships to help them. A weight fell on their hearts after twenty minutes of trying to get in contact. The officers felt that the federation had abandoned them.
However, the wait didn't continue much longer. Ten more minutes later, they received a reply. The higher ups in the federation weren't all idiots. When they noticed the starships getting destroyed and over 80% of the infantry had died, they gathered backups. The message they received was the first wave of backups would arrive in seven hours. They had to survive for seven hours in this battlefield.
Razak apparently had decent self control. He didn't curse out directly but the other officers, not so much. They cursed the higher ups as trash and was gradually getting enraged. Well to think of it, every minute they stayed here meant ten more casualties. They were getting surrounded by bugs. When the bugs fully surround them, all they could do is keep firing until the bugs eat them.
Razak turned to Zheng. "Sergeant major, do you have any advices? You look like something's on your mind. Speak it out."
Zheng immediately relayed the message to Lan who then connected him to Xuan.
"Ahem." Zheng paused for a good twenty seconds. The others thought he was organizing his words. He repeated what Xuan said. "Can't decentralize our forces. Our numbers are low to begin with. We need the firepower in order to fight the bugs. Can't abandon the injured. That will take a hit to our morale, which will drive the army into a passive position. The scouts had just found a small mountain. We can reach the top in about an hour. There is only one road that isn't wide leading up. However, the top of the mountain is fairly big. As long as we can defend that road and have a part of the troopers defend against the hopper bugs, we are likely to survive this seven hours."
Razak pondered for several seconds. "The biggest casualties come from marching. Many places, the ground just collapses and the bugs beneath will kill all the troopers that fall. An hour of marching meant one to two thousand deaths. Why not choose to garrison nearby? The terrain here isn't as advantageous but the flat area is also good for firing."
Zheng heard a sigh from Xuan. He was obviously not content with the suggestion. The lack of knowledge in tactics from these lieutenants were equivalent to their lack of heavy firearms. Their trainings were excellent but only in the combat level.
"Because what we are afraid of isn't the bugs gathering from afar. The firepower with two thousand troopers can kill off even tanker bugs charging at us or the high speed hopper bugs. Similarly, we have our weakness. Any bug could kill a dozen troopers if it gets in close range. So how can bugs get near us? Ambush from under the ground. Once we garrison at one place, this type of ambushes wouldn't stop. However, the top of a mountain is different in that its height and rocks can prevent the ambushes. We have to act fast before the bugs located us!"
The army received the order to march within five minutes. These lieutenants couldn't find a point to refute the plan. They handed the army to Zheng's group. Razak said to the other lieutenants. "Looks like we found an incredible sergeant major. This guy can join tactical department. No, those fools in the department is probably worse."
Zheng, or you could say Xuan's ability gained acknowledgement among the lieutenants. The team obtained control over the army in the march. Lan's psyche scan in combination with the gunners under Kampa's leader and scouts under WangXia's lead transformed the army into one with actual strength. The training these troopers went through weren't terrible. They just didn't know how to cooperate.
"I get the situation." Xuan was ordering the army through communication devices while he still had the time to speak with Zheng.
"The civilization of this Earth has a flaw. I learned through conversation with some people that the third World War nearly destroyed Earth. The government that formed post World War emitted heavy control on the possibility of wars starting. The next several hundreds were completely war free. Civilian technology evolved while military tech was suppressed by the government. Furthermore, military theories, tactics, and training went in an abnormal direction. The government of this Earth has totally forgotten what war is like because humans can't initiate war against themselves anymore. The Arachnids exposed how far behind they were in everything concerning the military."
"This is a bonus mission, Zheng. I can't be certain but it should be at least a BB or even A tier bonus mission to help the federation recover in their military technologies and qualities."
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