Chapter 43: Hurry Up and Come Out
The battle instantly became intense.
The mortars began to unleash their power.
A few shells were blocked by trees, but the shrapnel from the exploding shells still posed a threat.
More shells, unimpeded, fell approximately a hundred meters away into the forest among the charging monsters, clearing out entire swathes of enemies with each shot.
Overall, due to the forest environment, the range and power of the mortars were significantly reduced. But in the end, these were mortars, and their lethality could not be ignored.
Machine guns were even more terrifying killers.
If the enemies hid in the dense forest, they had cover and poor visibility, making it difficult to hit them from afar. But as soon as those monsters rushed out, even to the forest edge with fewer obstructions, the power of the machine guns would rapidly increase.
Once they truly emerged from the forest’s cover, the bullets from the machine guns would become a steel whip, sweeping across with no survivors.
After that, the regular rifles only needed to fill in the gaps.
A multi-layered and three-dimensional firepower net ensured that those monsters could not pose a real threat to the troops led by Gu Hang.
Biochemical artillery? Swift zombie dogs?
None of them worked.
What’s there to fear about the Abscess Spitters’ fifty-meter range?
The designated marksmen in the companies were already targeting these high-value threats.
Even without mentioning the shooting specialists in these T5-level troops, the soldiers of the Marine Squad were bona fide elites.
Their electromagnetic rifles had stronger performance and greater power.
With their attention, it was extremely difficult for the Abscess Spitters to get within fifty meters to hurl their corrosive pus into the human soldiers’ formation.
As for those zombie dogs, they were even less of a concern.
Their targets were relatively small, fast, and agile. However, under the dense firepower net, these small monsters were often taken out incidentally.
Often, a burst of heavy machine gun fire, even without a precise target, would hit a few bullets on the zombie dogs, blowing these pus-filled creatures apart.
Even if they broke through to close quarters, it was no big deal.
These small creatures, fierce as they were, had a body weight of about thirty kilograms, making their threat limited.
The soldiers’ rifles, all equipped with alloy bayonets, would pierce through the charging dogs, ensuring a quick kill.
Throwing them to the ground, stepping on their heads, pulling out the bayonets, and giving them a couple more shots would silence them completely.
In the battle, the most fearsome were still the four Bull Carts V.
These infantry fighting vehicles that could play a role in interstellar wars were not something these monsters could contend with.
A few biochemical shells from the Abscess Spitters did hit the Bull Carts V, but they had no effect whatsoever.
The corrosive effect of this pus seemed extremely harmful to organic matter.
The fabric of the soldiers’ uniforms offered poor protection against the pus, and upon contact with the flesh, the pain was excruciating.
But the armor vests worn by the soldiers could block the corrosion.
Not to mention the Bull Cart V.
Its outer armor was not only solidly constructed from Alloy and Plastic Steel, but it was also coated with a layer of ceramic steel film, a material even more advanced than alloy steel.
Conversely, the weaponry mounted on the Bull Cart, namely the twin-barreled 40mm autocannons, swept out death with every touch.
The fearsome rate of fire and overwhelming power rendered hiding in the trees useless.
A few more shots and both the tree trunks and the monsters hiding behind them would be destroyed together.
In a way, it truly resembled a long-range lumbering machine.
Faced with such massive firepower, the attacking horde of monsters suffered far greater damage than those who had attacked Yan Fangxu’s team from a distance.
In comparison, Gu Hang’s team was at a slight terrain disadvantage compared to Yan Fangxu’s position.
After all, the clearing they were in had just been created, the result of path-clearing during their march.
They were the ones being attacked, not the initiators of the battle, and they did not choose the location of the fight.
However, aside from this, Gu Hang’s team had advantages in every other aspect compared to Yan Fangxu’s.
They had more firepower, better soldiers—even though both were T5-level teams, Gu Hang had over twenty Marine Squad soldiers by his side.
On this battlefield, they could all serve as sharpshooters, with shooting accuracy within dozens of meters that was entirely reliable.
This also meant that the mutant monsters died even faster.
But they did not retreat, still seemingly emerging endlessly from the forest.
These brainless creatures, of course, did not know fear. Their lives were cheap, purely cannon fodder.
Even so, cannon fodder had its value.
If the puppeteers behind these monsters were hoping to trade the death of these cannon fodder for Gu Hang’s ammunition, they were sorely mistaken.
Having anticipated the kind of enemy he would face, he had made preparations before departure.
The G9 Rifle Series production line hadn’t been fully ramped up yet, and the Black Box Fabricator had just met the needs of the 3rd Infantry Battalion; ammunition production hadn’t been scheduled yet. But at least the ammunition reserves transported from the starship were still considered sufficient.
Now, Gu Hang had brought out a substantial portion of the reserves in one go. Several Bull Carts were pulling the ammunition reserves, stationed right at the center of the formation.
With such an abundant supply, not only could they fight this battle, but even if the intensity increased, it would be enough to sustain them through several more battles.
Gu Hang coldly observed the entire battlefield.
Right now, he was positioned in the center of the formation, using a Bull Cart V as his command vehicle. His direct line of sight was narrow, but this did not hinder his overall control of the situation. His psionic vision was activated, giving him a clear grasp of the entire battlefield’s general situation.
Initially, he had prepared himself to intervene if particularly dangerous threats emerged among the monsters, such as a large number of Abscess Spitters entering the range and launching biochemical shells into their formation.
He planned to take action to preemptively resolve these issues. But it seemed unnecessary now.
The soldiers were performing exceptionally well, making his backup measures redundant.
Gu Hang was quite satisfied with this.
Since the battlefield was generally under control, Gu Hang comfortably shifted his focus to the likely appearance of the cultists.
He did not believe that the cultists’ tactics were limited to merely driving these brainless monsters, as that would never pose a real threat to him.
They must have other tricks up their sleeves.
“The brainless monsters have already attracted most of my soldiers’ firepower. Now it’s your turn. Hurry up and come out.”