Chapter 343: The Split in the Dark
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
As he was repairing, Han Xiao looked up at the space fleet above Forest City. “Why is your spaceship still not joining the battle?”
“It is the city’s barrier from the sky, and it also has the strongest weapon. There’s no need to employ it against these small beasts,” Neville replied.
Han Xiao suddenly changed his tone. “I heard rumors about the trump card that you guys have called Commander Class armor, which is way more powerful than the NCO Class armor. Why don’t you guys use that?”
“Commander Class armor was lost a long time ago, back when we were first attacked on our home planet,” Neville said with a sigh. “We lost the technology to make the armor. Now, we only have four sets of heavily damaged Commander Class armor in our warehouse, and all of them were damaged by seventy percent. So, we can’t reverse-engineer the technology.
“Even though anyone can wear the Commander Class armor, only the Supers can maximize its full potential. When our home planet was being attacked, we send out all the Commander Class armor that we had, and they broke one by one, while the soldiers wearing the armor sacrificed their lives. Without them, the survivors would only have been half of our current size. In the end, we only retrieved four of the damaged sets of Commander Class armor. Those four sets were the key to our survival, and we keep them under maintenance.”
Commander Class armor was on a different level compared to Enlistee Class armor and NCO Class armor. The latter two were standard equipment, but Commander Class armor was the highest tier equipment and on the same level as elite equipment and the Supers’ equipment. The materials needed to produce one set of Commander Class armor could be used to produce a few hundred sets of Enlistee Class armor.
The loss of Commander Class armor technology meant that the downfall of this civilization was inevitable. If they still had the technology for Commander Class armor, then they could employ that equipment to fight off dangerous beasts, and the threat of the Catastrophe would decrease.
Boom!
The ground shook violently, and the two armored soldiers got knocked to the side. Neville saw something behind Han Xiao and shouted, “Move!”
An Underground Crustacean Beast that was the size of a bull knocked the soldiers into the air and charged directly at Han Xiao. There were a lot of Underground Beasts, and this type tended to charge at their target. Their defensive status was high with their dark armor that was as hard as steel. It could block off machine gun bullets, so it was an extremely difficult creature to deal with.
Han Xiao turned around and took out a golden ball from his pocket. The ball expanded into the Wrath of Garrett, and without delay, he activated Flaming Will on top of some critical damage skills while triggering true damage at the same time.
A bright light beam shot through the air and directly penetrated the armor of the beast. Only a burn mark was left on the body of the beast.
The defense troops needed to use more than ten seconds to take down the beast, but Han Xiao did it in one attack. With its momentum, the corpse slowly slid next to Han Xiao’s feet while leaking a gluey liquid.
“Don’t be so surprised. I am stronger than you all.” Han Xiao withdrew his weapon and continued with his repairs as if nothing had happened.
“... I forgot.” Neville’s mouth was wide open. He had thought that Han Xiao was just a logistics worker without any combat power, and he just remembered that Han Xiao was a Super.
Within a few minutes, Han Xiao put down his tools and said, “It’s fixed.”
The armor worked again. Neville stood up, double checked that the armor was fixed, and ran straight back to the battlefield, yelling at his troops for leaving their posts.
Even though they were being yelled at, the soldiers did not complain. They were actually happy that they had been able to save their boss’s life.
Neville stopped scolding the soldiers and focused on the battle. He continued to yell and command his troops.
Just as Han Xiao was prepared to move to the next repair point, a sharp alarm rang from the base. Han Xiao stopped his steps and looked around.
Level two warning. The Catastrophe is now in the middle stage.
A mysterious cold atmosphere spread, and a group of black shadows flew out of the forest. They were covered in black fog and flew across the field a few meters above the ground. They easily avoided the minefield and dodged the majority of the ranged attacks with their agile movements.
A bright light soon showed the appearance of these creatures. They had dark gray flesh without any hair. They were at least three or four meters tall and did not have any facial features. They had two antennae on their head to sense the environment. Four long claws extended from their body, and they had strong beast legs and a pair of dark bat wings. In addition, there were three whip-like tails filled with spikes.
“The Night Moth!” Han Xiao recognized this beast from the initial briefing. The appearance of these beasts meant that the Catastrophe had moved past the first stage and reached the middle stage. With the first stage being so threatening, and the later stages being at least a dozen times more dangerous, the deaths and damage would clearly intensify.
The retreat order was sent through the earphone. “All maintenance staff, fall back to the fifth defense line and enter the base!”
Han Xiao naturally followed the order and headed back to the metal base. The doors and windows were locked tight, and no exit could be found. It was the required safety measures, so the staff could only watch the battle outside through the window.
Pa!
Suddenly, the defense lines all turned on powerful full-beam headlights and pointed them to the sky. The dark night became as bright as day. The approaching Night Moths screeched as the light shone on them, and they lost all sense of direction as they collided with one another, rolling on the ground as if they were drunk. Then, quite a number of Night Moths landed on the minefield and exploded into pieces.
A Night Moth’s antennae were sensitive to light, so they could only move in the dark.
The Sunils had prepared specific plans for certain types of beasts. After reaching the middle stage of the Catastrophe, the mission was not as simple as just shooting bullets. Now, the troops had to use specific tactics to deal with certain beasts. The tactics had been obtained from all the blood shed of previous Catastrophes, and they would surely reduce the damage.
In the end, there were also a lot of enemies that were hard to handle. The toxic bugs were an example. Those things were the sign of the final stage.
Every single Night Moth was on the same level as a class D super. They were very agile, and their tails could easily penetrate armor. Because of that, a lot of turrets were destroyed, and the defense troops and mercenaries were in a predicament. The number of deaths kept on increasing.
...
The intense battle dragged on until dawn. The remaining Night Moth finally backed off, and the battle reached a temporary peaceful stage. At least a few thousand soldiers had died in the span of a single night. It was the deadliest battle so far.
Countless corpses had been put into corpse bags and sent to the backline. Many family members of the soldiers lived in the city. Their glorified sacrifice was not only because of their pride but also for their families. Their corpses would all be identified by the families, and the night was filled with painful wails echoing from the city.
The soldiers that had still been well and alive the night before turned into corpses in a few hours. The morale of the base hit rock-bottom. The soldiers were exhausted after last night. They could not even take off their armor in case of an emergency attack, so they scattered and sat on the ground, staring into the sky without thinking of anything.
Hearing the cries of the families, the soldiers realized that they could be one of those corpses in the next few days.
In such an atmosphere, the mercenaries could only stay quiet and prepare their equipment.
This scene reminded Han Xiao of Planet Aquamarine. No matter where one traveled in the universe, the suffering that war brought was the same.
Suddenly, there was some movement on the side. A large group of scouts had returned to the base. They were well respected by the Sunils. A lot of soldiers stared at them, and some saluted out of respect.
The scouts had a logical schedule. There would always be troops to replace the team for them to come back and rest. The players were the troops that had been sent out to replace this team.
Han Xiao recalled a conversation with Lerden. Lerden had mentioned that there were two strong soldiers who had reached class B. They were working as mercenaries in the galaxy, and every year, they would earn large sum of money. They were the idols of the entire civilization.
The leader of the returning scouts was one of those two—Fernas.
All the high officials from the military showed up and welcome the returning troops.
Fernas waved his hand and said, “We have lost a lot of brothers. We brought back as many corpses as we could.”
The crowd spread out and put down twenty or so corpse bags on the ground. They were all Sunil Supers. Fumay was also one of them.
Han Xiao looked around and did not see Lerden’s corpse. He looked into the crowd and saw that Lerden was still standing in the team. Although he had lost another leg and two arms, at least he was still alive.
“They are all heroes,” the military officials said. “We will take care of the rest.”
“I hope so,” Fernas replied.
The Sunil Supers all looked at the corpses at their friends and showed sorrowful expressions.
The atmosphere dropped another notch.
Han Xiao kept on observing the expressions of the Supers, and he found out that one group, including Lerden, only showed a despairing expression and mourned for the loss.
As for the other group, other than sadness, they also showed rage and anger.