Alien Relic Hunter

Eighty kilometers north of the White Ridge Mountains, the field corps assembly point.

All the forces of the fourteen divisions have been assembled in just a few hours. In order to transport these troops, almost all the airships and transport aircraft of the First, Second and Third Cruise Fleets were mobilized. Even the Zero Fleet Some of the long-distance transport aircraft were temporarily mobilized.

Even so, there is still a big gap in the air force's transportation capacity... Even if every air ship and every transport plane is filled with people, it can only meet less than one-third of the transportation volume.

Soldiers are very fast. If the remaining troops are allowed to go to the assembly point by land, it will take at least a week for all the troops to be assembled...one hundred and eighty-six hours. There are too many variables that can happen during this time.

The longer the delay is, the more fully prepared the heretical sects in the ancient copper city ruins will be, and the greater the casualties in the siege will be.

From the beginning, this was not a battle of equal strength. Only by taking things by surprise could Ark gain some chance of winning.

After discovering that air transport alone could not complete the mission on time, the field corps headquarters even came up with a somewhat crazy solution: they directly stuffed the soldiers into large containers, and then hung the containers under the transport aircraft. , transporting people to the assembly point like transporting goods.

The cost of this was that during the transportation process, two severely overloaded transport planes lost control and collided. A total of more than 600 people on board the two planes and in the hanging containers were killed.

In addition, a transport aircraft formation was attacked by indigenous creatures "snake-headed vultures" while passing through a dangerous airspace. Although the escorting fighter jets quickly shot and killed these snake-headed vultures, there was still one snake-headed vulture. When he was about to die, he broke the sling under a transport plane - the container fell directly from an altitude of thousands of meters without any protection measures and buffering devices. You can imagine what the fate of the people inside was like.

Before the battle officially started, the field corps had already lost nearly a thousand soldiers.

"There is nothing we can do about this..."

In the temporary command headquarters in the sky, an old man with the rank of lieutenant general on his shoulders sighed and said to his colleagues around him.

"After the attack starts, there will be hundreds of casualties every minute. Compared with this, this loss is nothing." Another man, who also holds the rank of lieutenant general but looks to be less than forty years old The man answered.

"As the saying goes, kindness does not control the army. It is indeed a good thing for young people to be energetic... But when you reach my age, you will know..." The lieutenant general who spoke at the beginning said again.

His temples are completely gray, and the deep crow's feet are piled up at the corners of his eyes. Dark brown age spots can be seen everywhere on his face that has been tempered by time. A large-cloak-style general's trench coat is draped on his somewhat stooped torso. It looked a little empty when I went up there.

"What do you know?" The young lieutenant general turned his head, with a trace of doubt in his eyebrows.

"When you lie in bed late at night and close your eyes to fall asleep, the souls of those soldiers who were sent to the battlefield by your own hands will appear in front of your eyes... A general will be the one who decides their fate. Naturally, you also need to bear their obsession and resentment." The old lieutenant general sighed, "These dead souls will haunt you for a lifetime until your body turns to ashes in the incinerator."

"The dead souls are just superstition." The young lieutenant general said with some disdain, "What's more, I rarely dream, and I almost never have nightmares."

"That's why I envy you young people... To be honest, I voted against this combat operation... Not only me, but also most of the 'decision makers' in the joint parliamentary group are against this operation. . Less than half of the young military officers and the most radical group of hawks voted in favor. If it weren’t for the people above insisting on fighting, this resolution would never have been passed... In fact, we all You know, our voting is just a formality to express our opinions, it has no actual meaning."

The old lieutenant general was silent for a moment, and then continued, "In our opinion, this battle is no different from the 'betting on the fate of the country' in the old era... We have bet almost all our chips, so we cannot afford to lose."

"But if heretical sects are allowed to occupy the ruins of Alpha civilization one after another, it will just be a slow death!" The young lieutenant general retorted immediately, "In my opinion, heretical sects are like gangrene in the bones. If we can't discover them, We must eradicate it as soon as possible, but when the disease reaches its terminal stage, there is really no cure!"

"Then do you know why Ark has not taken any large-scale military action against the heretical sect for decades? The so-called heretical sect was just a small organization with less than a hundred members at the beginning. Even their prophets Inheriting some of the legacy of Alpha Civilization, even if the Seeds of Corrosion have combat power that far exceeds that of ordinary creatures, in the face of the absolute power of the Ark, they are just a group of little bugs that can be crushed to death at any time." The old lieutenant general said, "You Have you ever wondered why the people above didn't choose to 'crush them to death' at that time?"

"Is it because they are so good at hiding like insects?" The doubt in the young lieutenant general's eyes became more and more serious.

"No, it's just because the people above deliberately let them go." The old lieutenant general shook his head, "You just described the heretical sect as a gangrene attached to the bones, then you should also know that malignant tumors in cancer patients are not actually It’s not a foreign invader, but one’s own cells that have lost control due to mutation, right?”

The young lieutenant general couldn't help but hold his breath, his eyes widened slightly, and he stared in surprise at this colleague who was almost twice his age.

"In the early years, the institute once proposed a project. I don't know if you have heard of it." The veteran lieutenant general continued, "Some researchers believe that if the proliferation rate of cancer cells can be successfully controlled, this will make immortality a reality. Possibility - human lifespan is limited to the number of divisions of its own cells, while cancer cells can divide almost unlimited times, and can transform and metastasize at will... The researcher believes that cancer cells may be the direction of human evolution in the future, but in this direction Something went awry, and the changes that were supposed to bring immortality to humans actually led to their death.”

Although what the old lieutenant general said seemed to have nothing to do with what the two people had discussed previously, the expression on the young lieutenant general's face changed from confusion to surprise, and then from surprise to astonishment as he got closer.

He stayed there for a while, then asked with some difficulty: "So, the exile policy in the early years was also because of..."

"Okay." The old lieutenant general interrupted his question, "There are some things that you just need to have a rough idea of ​​in your mind. You don't need to say them clearly."

"Okay, okay." The young lieutenant general took a few steps back in a daze, reaching out to hold the back of the chair.

When he looked down at the dozens of phalanxes that were undergoing the last preparations before the war, there was an obvious change in his eyes...

At this moment, a staff officer opened the hatch and walked in, speaking quickly to report to the two of them: "Report to the commander! The infiltration team has arrived at the mining base!"

The old lieutenant general raised his head and glanced at the countdown on the screen. There were still sixteen minutes left before launching the attack.

"Got it." He nodded to the staff officer, "Let the troops below get ready. We will launch an attack on the target on time."

The staff officer saluted and quickly retreated.

There were only two of them left in the command room.

"Next, it's your stage." The old lieutenant general glanced at the young lieutenant general with an extremely complicated expression, "Lieutenant General Terenz."

Terenz Linde, the youngest graduate of the Ark First Military Academy since its establishment. At the age of only nineteen, he obtained the diploma from the First Military Academy with full marks in the written examination and sixteen consecutive wins in the simulation sandbox. At that time, he was hailed as "a rising future star."

After graduation, Terenz lived up to expectations. As soon as he joined the Field Corps, he commanded several beautiful small-scale battles as a regimental commander. Within half a year, he was promoted to the position of staff officer of the General Headquarters of the Field Corps, and then His military rank and position climbed at a rocket-like speed, and he was awarded the rank of brigadier general at the age of twenty-nine - except for those school-level officers who were posthumously awarded the rank of general because of their sacrifices, he was the first person to arrive at the Ark landing on Planet Alpha. At his current position, he is the only person who obtained the title of general before the age of thirty.

He has a terrifying battlefield sense and ability to analyze and judge, and his command style is known for his boldness and decisiveness, but he also has a "surgical" precision in handling some details. Someone reviewed the battles he commanded and found that at the critical stages of those battles, his calculations of the battle situation were even accurate to squad-level units... It was like playing chess - "one soldier, one pawn." Operations are all very important.”

The most shocking thing is that Terenz never needs a staff team when he is commanding... He is like an independent thinking chess player, analyzing tens of millions of real-time messages and moves by himself. Control the entire battle situation.

"The staff will interfere with my thinking." This is what Terenz said when faced with other people's questions.

Of course, this kind of command method is also very terrible for the commander himself. It is almost commonplace to command the battlefield while breathing oxygen. When the orderlies clean the command room afterwards, they can often find many empty ones on the ground. Stimulant syringe.

But it is undeniable that Terenz has innate talents and abilities. In a battle commanded by him, even if it is a losing battle, he can control his own losses to a minimum.

…

"There are still nine minutes." Terenz glanced at the countdown, "Let the gunboats of the first, second, and third cruise fleets move forward to the preset coordinates A6, and their firepower covers the area from A19 to C2."

The area from A19 to C2 that Terenz mentioned was the wasteland area between the ruins of the Ancient Bronze City and the assembly point of the field army. Although this area seemed to be flat and could not hide any traps, out of caution, he decided to Carpet bomb an area.

He does not have the arrogance inherent in most geniuses. On the contrary, he is a very cautious person - prudence has never been a trait that conflicts with boldness and decisiveness.

When they coexist in the same person, the effect they exert is far greater than one plus one equals two.

"After the bombing, the mechas and tanks of the 9th and 10th Armored Divisions moved to the B15 position, and the infantry was on standby. The 115th Squadron of the Second Cruise Fleet tried to airdrop an unmanned aerial vehicle target drone above the ruins of the Ancient Bronze City to test the opponent's reaction. . The 20th and 27th Infantry Divisions followed the preset route to outflank the target on the left and right sides, and began to build temporary fortifications after arriving at the predetermined location."

One order after another was issued by Terenz, and the assembly phalanx below began to move. Hundreds of tanks and mechas broke away from the phalanx and formed an arrow-shaped advancement formation directly in front of the large army.

As soon as the armored forces were integrated, a dark shadow came over them. They were the gunboat troops who were ordered to press forward. Not long after, deafening shelling sounded above the heads of the ground troops, and the plain area directly ahead was instantly It was covered by dense explosions.

"Reporting to Commander, the first round of fire coverage strikes has ended. According to computer analysis, the enemy has planted about two thousand old anti-infantry mines in the plains, and they have been completely destroyed." The staff officer said on the other side of the screen - as Old subordinates who have worked under Terenz for several years, these staff officers also know that their responsibilities only need to report the battle situation and computer analysis results to the general. As for how to judge the war situation, what measures need to be taken, and what orders need to be issued, it is entirely up to Terenz alone.

The staff team didn't even need to give suggestions... Even they themselves often complained about themselves in private, "Thirty bad generals can't stand up to one Zhuge Liang."

It can be said that the staff group under Terenz is probably the one with the smallest workload in Ark.

"There are only two thousand old anti-infantry mines..."

Two thousand landmines may sound like a lot, but they are actually very sparsely distributed in such a large area. If they were evenly distributed, each landmine could even be thousands of meters apart.

Even if this round of strikes is not carried out, these mines will hardly cause any substantial damage to the armored troops that subsequently enter the battlefield. As for the infantry - by the time they enter this area, the mines have already been triggered by the armored troops. Eighty-eight.

Exchanging a round of carpet bombing for two thousand old-fashioned anti-infantry mines is not a very cost-effective deal - the cost of one round of 200 mm caliber heavy howitzer shells alone is equivalent to hundreds of such mines, and one round At least thousands of such shells were fired during the round bombing.

However, Terenz did not show a relaxed look on his face, but issued another order: "Add two more rounds of fire coverage, and use ground-penetrating bombs. After the third round of bombing, the armored forces Entering the scene. The first, second and third fighter formations are responsible for air support."

"What's wrong, do you think there's something wrong with this plain?" The old lieutenant general turned his head and glanced at Terenz.

"Since the heretic sect can lay two thousand landmines without us noticing at all, then I have every reason to believe that there are more things hidden under the ground on this plain." Terence said decisively, "These Landmines are not used to reduce our effective forces, but to make us relax our vigilance."