Chapter 487

!!!

Zakhesi, who was the first to consider this possibility, was no longer his usual calm self; he hurriedly opened communications and ordered the metropolitan Intelligence Department:

"Alert all Tai Luo Ke Er military units: an unknown abnormal creature… no, it's an unknown and highly dangerous xenomorphic insectoid species, about to launch an assault on the metropolitan area and all major towns."

"Also, it's best to notify residents of remote villages and farms to evacuate to the nearest towns; if necessary, communicate with the UNSC fleet to have them dispatch an aviation formation to assist evacuation."

"Yes, sir."

Hearing the reply over the comms, Zakhesi then said to those around him: "Everyone, it seems we underestimated the threat level of this xenomorphic insectoid species, and even our Intelligence Department failed to detect their infiltrations before any casualties appeared."

"Gah… it looks like a meteorite disguised as a natural fall." the Ironblood Company Commander echoed in a low voice.

"That's right, it's very likely." Zakhesi did not deny it.

"So what should we do now?" Tanya asked.

Upon hearing that,

Zakhesi first waved his left hand toward the large egg sac below, signaling the auxiliary forces that had followed to immediately collect tissue samples, then he said to Tanya and everyone present:

"I'm not a commander, but until our Intelligence Department analyzes this xenomorph's breeding speed and intelligence level, we should hold onto our existing towns and metropolitan area as best we can."

"That's a good suggestion." the Ironblood Company Commander nodded in agreement and called the Aviation Company to pick them up and return to Ouliweilan Town.

"But what if we can't hold them, then what should we do?"

However, while everyone waited for the auxiliary forces to finish collecting samples, Celesstin uttered a question that caused the atmosphere to plummet.

"." Zakhesi remained silent for several seconds, and only after seeing the auxiliary forces finish collecting tissue samples did he continue:

"Although our Intelligence Department has confidence in Tai Luo Ke Er's defensive capabilities, we do not rule out the possibility of defeat; therefore, once researchers analyze the xenomorph insectoids' detailed information, if the threat level far exceeds expectations, the Intelligence Department will request support from the nearest legion garrison."

But before that…

Zakhesi turned around, prepared with the auxiliary forces to return the same way, then said: "Please everyone, first ensure the safety of the residents as much as possible; as for the current top priority, it is to leave this place."

Having said that,

The group no longer lingered, using the endurance and speed boost of their respective powered armor, they hurried toward the ground, and just as they were about to rush out of the insect nest, they also linked up with the 2nd and 3rd Reconnaissance Squads.

Not long after leaving the insect nest, the Yuyou hovering in high altitude and the aviation unit appeared in everyone's visual field.

After everyone had re-boarded.

The Yuyou sped toward low orbit, carrying Zhakesis and the auxiliary forces, as well as the collected unknown insect egg casings, heading for the metropolitan area at top speed.

Tanya and Celesstin, meanwhile, boarded the assault craft launched from the side hatches, together with the 1st Reconnaissance Company and the aviation unit, heading back to the town of Aoliweilan over two hundred kilometers away.

Legs stretched out of the hatch, Tanya, seated near the tail, frowned tightly, her expression grave as she watched the trees slip by beneath her; seated beside her, Celesstin, and the sisters inside the cabin, were the same.

Far from their homeworld, they had come to the Zero Three Universe under orders, all for the purpose of exterminating the xenos and burning the heretics?

But once they actually found themselves in the vortex of war's haze, for some unknown reason they felt that their previous idea had been overly naive.

War, warfare, does not merely mean being able to exterminate the xenos and burn the heretics; it also means many compatriots will die.

As combat sisters, whether trainees or not, they ought to show no mercy to the enemy, while cherishing compatriots with compassion and kindness.

Therefore, they should not long for war and conflict; they ought to pray for peace and stability instead.

It seemed that after burning the remains of the special squad and the victims, the thoughts of Tanya, Celesstin, and the other sisters had quietly undergone a slight change.

"All personnel, pay attention!"

Just then, the pilot's warning came over the comms: "Vibrations on a large scale have been detected in the jungle forty kilometers ahead; it is likely the disturbance caused by an unknown insect swarm's charge."

Upon hearing the warning.

Tanya immediately adjusted the holographic screen before her left eye, switched to a top-down map, and found that the point forty kilometers ahead mentioned by the pilot was only twenty-plus kilometers in a straight line from the eastern edge of Aoliweilan.

She had no access, nor the authority, to Umbrella and UNSC's high-level channels, but it was not hard to guess that the 3rd Battalion at that moment certainly knew of the situation before the pilot did.

Tanya guessed that the 3rd Battalion had already prepared its defenses, so next they would likely request a barrage of fire from the escort ship stationed in low orbit.

"Ga… Notify all of the 1st Company and all trainee sisters, our side is about to launch a naval bombardment on the insect swarm; please get ready."

Sure enough, just as she had thought of that, the iron-blooded company commander spoke the reminder over the comms.

Immediately after.

Tanya, Celesstin, and the other sisters, taking advantage of the assault craft's open hatch, all lifted their heads to gaze up at the star‑filled night sky.

Soon they spotted a dense flurry of "blue meteors."

And the "meteors" grew larger and larger, indicating they were getting closer.

Within a few seconds, the "meteors" entered the lock‑on range of each of their holographic screens.

Without needing to zoom in, the trainee sisters recognized those "blue meteors" as the escort ship's plasma secondary guns.

When the blue light illuminated the rainforest, Tanya's and Celesstin's gaze shifted from upward to upward‑slant, and finally they leaned slightly out of the hatch to look toward the nose of the assault craft.

All they saw was the massive plasma cannon array, and at the instant it struck the distant ground, the blue light blazed across the sky.

As the light faded, Tanya and the others could faintly see countless "ice‑crystal"‑like clods of dirt flung upward, reflecting sparse, glinting light.

"Boom—!! Boom!!"

After a moment, everyone finally heard the violent impact and explosion.

At the same time, the assault craft and all transport aircraft encountered a bout of turbulence, causing the airframe to shudder slightly, while the rainforest below was thrown into wild wind.

But the aftershocks soon dissipated, leaving the rainforest as it was before.

Yet Tanya and Celesstin, who had not fastened their helmets, smelled the scent of earth and burnt air.

It seemed that a single salvo from the escort ship's secondary guns matched the firepower coverage of a UNSC artillery battalion, and not long after, the assault craft carried them to the edge of the plasma cannon array's kill zone.

Because they were at the edge, nothing here was directly vaporized or crystallized, but the intense heat dried and cracked the soil, withered the trees, or set them ablaze.

They continued flying forward for a stretch.

There they could see scattered, dirty, grimy crystal chunks, while the land where the plasma array struck and exploded had been overturned, revealing large expanses of crystal flakes and chunks that reflected the distant firelight.

As for living creatures—

Seeing this scene, theoretically no living thing could withstand the plasma cannon's hundred‑million‑degree heat.

Even an Astate that has undergone secondary modification surgery, without equipping the Thor's Hammer Mark VII or higher model powered armor, cannot directly face the concentrated bombardment of plasma cannon teams, or ship-mounted secondary guns.

However, influenced by the Lord of Mankind, humans who permeate the 'steady' spirit throughout society will not merely judge by surface appearances.

Thus, Tanya, Celesstin, and others activated the dynamic detection and pulse scan on the holographic screen, and the returned results were consistent with the observed surface.

Indeed, there was hardly any movement near the explosion's center.

However, the data displayed on the holographic screen showed that beneath the surface surrounding the explosion's center, there remained an uncountable number of 'red dots'.

Not only that.

Apparently affected by the secondary gun bombardment, the 'red dots' representing the unknown insectoids actually began to speed up, rushing toward Olivrin town.

Moreover, that recent bombardment was like poking a hornet's nest, and the holographic screen still showed a large number of 'red dots' surging again within the blast area.

This indicates that the unknown insectoids, deep underground, have already dug an unimaginably vast tunnel system using their extremely strong and rapid burrowing ability.

"Ga!" Suddenly, the Iron Blood Company Commander shouted over the comms: "Everyone prepare to engage the enemy! Fire at will! Fire at will!"

"Howl~!"

Before the words had even finished, Tanya and the others heard a piercing, sharp roar coming from below.

Looking toward the sound, they saw a large-bodied insectoid emerge from the ground, its back covered in deep purple carapace and bearing two pairs of blood-red bone blades.

This insectoid opened its mouthparts, which were merely strips of flesh connecting the hollowed sides, and with its pupil-less eyes emitting a pale yellow glow, it fixed its stare on one of the Cormorants.

As more and more insectoids burrowed out of the soil, just the sight of them made a sister who dislikes dense things feel deeply uncomfortable.

"Fire! Fire!"

"Ma De! For those dead children!!"

Moreover, at the moment they saw the insectoids appear, the UNSC scouts' cries came over the comms.

"Tap-tap-tap!"

"Tong~! Tong~!"

Immediately after, gunfire and artillery roared.

Shellless Pulse Ammo and Gauss spike rounds of various calibers, along with aircraft-mounted machine guns, poured forth indiscriminately onto the ground-based insect swarm.

"Ri~TingTing!!"

Inside the assault craft's cabin, two crew members wearing only intra-atmosphere work uniforms were operating the 8mm five-barrel rotary Gauss machine guns mounted on either side of the cabin, continuously firing straight blue-light trajectories toward the ground.

Naturally, the apprentice sisters who had been immersed since childhood in the 'Human Truth' doctrine pulled the triggers without regard for ammunition reserves.

"Haha~! Die! Die!"

Tanya gripped the recoil-heavy injector with both hands, spraying an extremely long-range, ultra-high-temperature orange-red flame.

Guns and cannons fired in unison.

On the insectoids' side…

They were not as fragile as the scouts and apprentice sisters had imagined; the envisioned scenes of their bodies easily exploding, tearing, being pierced, or burned did not materialize.

"Hum~! Hum~!"

On the contrary, the large insectoids that burrowed out of the ground could actually generate a biological barrier emitting a rotting green light, helping them offset the human assault.

Even though the biological barrier would eventually collapse and dissipate, this was enough to refresh the understanding of Tanya, Celesstin, and the other sisters.

Because, according to their textbooks and the lessons on classic battles, all the insectoid lifeforms they had learned about—except for the Flood, which can infect a host's body and use the host's powered armor energy shield for defense—had never been heard of as capable of producing a biological barrier solely from their flesh.

What's more shocking is that they sensed no Spiritual Energy fluctuations, proving that the barrier produced by the insectoids below is not a Spiritual Energy barrier but a biological one.

Fortunately, the main force on the insectoid side consists of smaller creatures resembling prehistoric velociraptors.

They either have bone blades or are akin to 'weapon insects' with biological gun-like organs, and only a very few possess biological barriers.

"Pfft! Pfft!"

Thus, when faced with the humans' coordinated gunfire, the weapon insects were directly torn apart and annihilated in the tens of thousands, and the flames sprayed by Tanya and a few sisters also seemed to have a 'clear-screen' effect on the weapon insects.

Larger in size, somewhat exceeding but not quite reaching that of a tyrannosaurus, and possessing four pairs of sharp bone blades, the 'warrior insect' with its exaggerated headcrown each has a biological barrier.

And the insectoids certainly won't just stand foolishly on the ground to be hit.

"Whoosh! Whoosh!"

The weapon insects with biological guns writhe, and even their 'muzzles' oozing green liquid aim at the sky, firing extremely fast bone spikes and bioplasma that flickers with a faint green light in the night sky.

The aviation formation began to suffer fierce counterattacks.

"Hum!"

As Tanya sat on one side of the cabin, she saw a bone spike nearly hit her when the assault craft automatically generated an energy shield, helping her deflect and block the attack.

"Damn! These insectoids are far tougher than what Redfield said!"

This made the hot-tempered Tanya curse loudly, and she immediately unloaded the burnt-out fuel canister, tossed it aside, and took a brand-new Anhao Extended Magazine Extended Magazine Extended Magazine from the built-in compartment on the right side of her powered armor.

But just as she finished swapping the fuel canister and prepared to continue spraying flames downward, she saw new insectoids emerging from the ground.

It was a type larger than the warrior insect, yet also more bloated and corpulent, its abdomen protected by deep purple carapace, faintly flashing with a green light.

At a glance, one could tell it was the kind capable of firing a 'large-caliber' bioplasma cannon, a long-range heavy fire support unit of the unknown insectoids.

As expected.

Immediately after these plasma insects burst from the soil, they used their asymmetrical right-arm biological cannon, resembling a corroded 300mm or 400mm gun, to aim at the Cormorants and assault craft hovering in midair, firing one massive green-light plasma salvo after another.

"Boom! Boom~! Clatter!!"

One of the Cormorants, even though the pilot maneuvered to evade and actively deployed its maximum-power energy shield, ultimately had its shield shatter after taking four consecutive plasma salvos.

And the plasma salvos fired at that Cormorant were not just one…

(End of Chapter)