Chapter 494: Changes II
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Green Arrow was one of the midsized starships in the fleet. It was also one of their 12 warships, with 125 mech pilots. According to Ye Chong's designations, each warship would have a Company of pilots.
Today, Green Arrow was led not by its usual leader, the 5th Company's Sergeant, but by Captain Xi Qing. Not only did Xi Qing himself was sent to Green Arrow, he also brought another four Companies to the ship. This brought the number of mech pilots onboard the Green Arrow to 250.
Xi Qing boarded Green Arrow when the ship retreated deeper into the fleet to reorganize its crew.
"Thank you for your hard work, everyone!" Xi Qing nodded in greeting and respect to the mech pilots and gestured for them to remain seated.
He looked around, and saw that everyone had their attention on him.
"Now, there's a very difficult task to be assigned to you. Are you scared?" Xi Qing smiled.
"No way!"
"Hell no!"
"Captain, when has any one of us said we're scared?"
"That's right, just say the word and we'll get to it!"
… ...
They sounded loud and energetic enough. Some even stood up in protest.
"Alright! We have good people fighting with us!" Xi Qing said with pride. "However, the task we have is hard enough that we'll need another four Companies to fight alongside us. I hope we can all work together and take down those creatures!" Xi Qing made a downward slashing motion with his tightly clenched right fist.
"Yes Sir!" Everyone roared out.
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The red-tailed beasts were numerous like a locust plague, and they had many starships in the fleet. The fragile parts of the starships had all been fortified, so the red-tailed beasts could not do much to them. For the moment, the battle had reached a stalemate. The red-tailed beasts stayed together despite their numbers, maintaining their large formation. Since Ye Chong's side could not send out any ships to battle it out, he could only be on the defense. In short, the red-tailed beasts held the active position in the battle.
Suddenly, three starships left the fleet and came out.
The three starships immediately drew the attention of the red-tailed beasts. In fact, Ye Chong's fleet was too strongly defended that the thousand-strong red-tailed beast army was like an ant before an elephant. Even though many red-tailed beasts were drawn away by the energy cells and left the main army, the great majority of red-tailed beasts were still in formation.
The sudden movements from the three starships was a striking turn of events in the battle.
The red-tailed beast army went for the ships without delay. They were much faster and more agile than the starships. The starships made all sorts of evasive maneuvers to no avail.
The crew members in the three starships heard what sounded like raindrops falling onto their ships. In just a moment, the red-tailed beasts were crawling all over the three ships. It was a terrifying sight.
Major's forehead glistened with sweat that went rolling down his cheeks. He was panting heavily. He was in an agitated state right now. His face was unnaturally red, and his breaths were short and laboured. He knew that the stakes of this battle had never been higher. How much higher, he did not know.
"Open the hatch!"
The heavy metal hatch in front of him opened silently.
Major straightened himself. He held his breath as he locked his gaze at the hatch exit. Right now, he was like a wild beast ready to unleash its full strength.
Five red-tailed beasts came into the passageway like predators that smelled blood.
Behind them were several more red-tailed beasts.
Five Fighter mechs were already positioned into a defensive formation. The red-tailed beasts rushed in like a black tsunami wave, reaching the Fighter mechs in an instant.
Bang bang bang bang bang!
Under the continuous impacts, all five Fighters were forced back a few steps! The red-tailed beasts had strongly collided into them. The creatures did not fare too well themselves, looking slightly taken aback. However, they continued to swiftly move, sticking to the sides to allow more of their kind to enter the passageway.
"Hold your positions!" Major shouted. Veins showed on his temples, but his hands moved quickly. He knew that this was not the time to retreat. If they did not hold their position now, they would be pushed further back and closer to defeat.
Wham! Major's Fighter stomped into the ground, pushing the mech forward.
The squad members understood each other perfectly. There was no cowardice in these spearheads! They all knew without Major's reminder that they must not back down now.
The four Fighter mechs adjusted themselves and pushed forward, pushing against the ground or the side walls. They found themselves right behind Major's mech again in no time.
"Go to hell!" Major yelled as he ran straight into one of the red-tailed beasts that was coming in. His Fighter's metal fist connected with the red-tailed beast's arrowhead tail, creating sparks.
The strong impact nearly through Major off balance, but the Fighter suddenly reached out with its left mechanical arm and grabbed onto the red-tailed beast's right ankle.
With its ankle caught, the creature was surprised, and whipped its red arrowhead tail towards the mech's throat.
The Fighter anticipated it and narrowly avoided the attack.
This short exchange made a whole world of difference for the red-tailed beast. The four Fighter mechs criss-crossed over, and the trapped red-tailed beast was cut into eight pieces.
Major breathed heavily as he stared at the dead red-tailed beast. The passageway was now full of red-tailed beasts. There were no less than dozens of them inside, and it was a terrifying idea to deal with.
The other red-tailed beasts were unaffected by the death of one its own. They were staring yearningly at the energy cells behind the mechs.
Major and his squad regrouped into formation. The next part of the battle was going to push them to their limits.
Just as the red-tailed beasts were trying to enter the passageway, the three starships with red-tailed beasts crawling all over them were slowly making their way back to the fleet.
The other starships quickly made way for these three starships, now filled with very dangerous cargo.
These starships were very close to the three starships. They all kept their passageway hatches open. An energy wave that was very familiar to the red-tailed beasts faintly but clearly came from within, despite the main attraction in the three starships.
The red-tailed beasts that could not fit themselves into the passageways were drawn by the energy cells of these starships along the way. Soon, the red-tailed beasts began to drift away in twos or threes away from the three starships towards these distractions.
There were too many energy cells around them such that each passageway would only attract a few red-tailed beasts.
The number of red-tailed beasts on the three starships reduced gradually over time. It was like watching a huge block of ice melt from a warm breeze, bit by bit.
Xi Qing saw the empty space before him and felt the worry in him relaxed a bit. It was time!
He knew that the decisive part of the battle had arrived!
Seven starships that had prepared themselves now surrounded the three starships. The few red-tailed beasts that remained there suddenly realized that there was a much stronger energy wave coming from around them!
They got excited immediately and quickly abandoned the three starships for the other seven starships.
With so many red-tailed beasts drawn away, the remaining creatures were few enough to be absorbed by these ten starships.
There were not many red-tailed beasts left in outer space. Most of them had already been lured into the passageways of the ships. Only a few slower ones were still outside.
Suddenly, all ten starships closed their hatches shut.
Now, the red-tailed beasts that were still outside began to sense that something was amiss, and began to panic. They could sense an impending threat and wanted to leave, but found that there was nowhere to escape.
The seven starships had formed a small but tight surround formation. The space between them could only allow one or two red-tailed beasts to pass through at any time. Here was also where squads of mechs were now in position. In outer space, a single mech could never hope to win against a red-tailed beast, but now the mechs could make up for this disadvantage by their strength in numbers.
Lure the enemy, disperse their forces, and surround them. Ye Chong's plan had been executed perfectly so far.
The red-tailed beasts struggled more fiercely than Ye Chong had anticipated. The battle took place for almost five hours.
The first large scale battle by Ye Chong's fleet ended with their victory. The battle had been won with fine results. After the battle, the number of red-tailed beasts killed totaled up to 1,431 of them. They even managed to capture 20 of the creatures alive, which would be very important for research purposes.
This victory against the red-tailed beasts was unprecedented, a win on the largest scale ever recorded in Gray Valley.
The entire fleet basked in joy of their triumph. Everyone saw hope in their survival, having witnessed how they could take control of their own fate. The battle was a strong boost of morale for all the crew members.
Nonetheless, Ye Chong could not be happy with the tallied numbers at the end of the battle. They had lost close to 500 mech pilots, and suffered 300 more casualties. The casualty rate was at 50 percent, while death was close to a third. This victory was hard won. If they repeated the same battle a few times, there would be nothing left of the fleet.
The only thing that Ye Chong could appreciate was the fact that while they had lost many mech pilots, their overall battle strength had been elevated. Experienced mech pilots were different from newbies. An army that had fought an actual, hard won war was different from an ordinary army.
In the end, Ye Chong regretted nothing. He had already done his best, leading a batch of freshies and obtaining such a result. Even Shang was a little surprised.
Little did he know that this victory had given him much more than that.