Chapter 246: Fresh Blood
Translator: Oneshotwonder Editor: Hitesh_
However, everyone was concerned that Li Ruoer and Ma Xiaoru would eventually become more of a hindrance than help. The two girls had limited experience on the battlefield, and they were not very good at following orders. It would take a full squad team just to keep them alive, much less expecting them to kill any Zergs.
The best option seemed to be keeping them on the ship and waiting for their feverish dream of becoming a heroine to cool down eventually. However, both of them had insisted on joining the ground force.
The two girls' requests had given the military a lot of pressure. However, the officers couldn't simply reject their requests while all eyes were on them. If they did, rumors of "special treatment" would sprout out and would deteriorate the Military's already eroding reputation. On the other hand, they couldn't afford to let the two girls get injured either.
Ma Sa had spent some time trying to figure out the situation. He was sent here with a different agenda, so he didn't want to invest too much time on unrelated matters. However, he became alert once he learned that Li Ruoer intended to hurt Wang Tong. Ma Sa happened to know about the temperament of both Li Ruoer and Wang Tong. So, he decided to keep the two separate to protect Wang Tong. Ma Sa really liked Wang Tong, not only because he believed that the latter had great potential in him, but also because of his approachable personality.
Ma Sa had decided to assign Li Ruoer to Li Shimin's battle unit, hoping that her brother would have greater control over her untamed spirit. Meanwhile, he had appointed Ma Xiaoru to Wang Tong's group, after having recalled their close relationship.
Ma Sa handed over the revised list to Lore, "Make sure you follow my orders."
Lore glanced over the list and nodded. It was a sticky situation for Lore, so he decided to do as he was told, and reasoned that should the sh*t hit the fans, he would blame everything on Ma Sa.
Wang Tong received a piece of level one METAL suit despite that his level was much higher. Supply shortage was the cruel reality faced by the military, and only a handful of the elites were able to wear higher tier METAL due to the dwindling funding. The poor equipment had undoubtedly hindered the soldiers' combat ability.
On the same night that Wang Tong had gotten his METAL, he was sent on the plane to district D. Everyone on the plane had a taut face; they were nervous as they were about to confront human's biggest enemy, the Zergs.
The ship landed inside a military base, and about a thousand soldiers were transported here together with Wang Tong. Humans no longer could wage large-scale assault. Instead, they decided to concentrate their forces on a few spots that they considered the possible locations of underground hives.
Wang Tong was a foot soldier in the ninth platoon, third regiment, the eighth brigade of the Norton Field Force. His platoon leader was second lieutenant Jansining, a forty-ish veteran soldier.
In the two days that followed, Wang Tong had experienced a unique atmosphere within the group. Jansining had left him only one order: think more and talk less. He was told to follow the group closely and not play hero under any circumstances. What real soldiers didn't like about heroes was that they were usually suicidally gloomy when sober, and homicidally insane when drunk, as an ancient wise man used to put it.
Jansining was well aware of Wang Tong's strength when he gave him the order. However, a battle was not won by one man. Rhe most efficient way to strike a blow to the enemy while staying safe was to work as a team. The danger would be more likely to sprout out if Wang Tong went off the grid and disrupted the team's strategy with his careless actions.
Within the next two days, Wang Tong had fought in four encounters. He struggled with the other eleven soldiers as a team regardless of the strength of enemies in front of them. Jansining was a fourth level soldier with a second tier METAL while the rest of the soldiers were in their third level and were wearing first tier METAL.
The battles had been intense, Wang Tong followed every single order, and there was no difficulty for him in understanding the intention in all of the orders. The twelve of them worked closely and covered each other's back. Jansining was right, should any one of them decide to fire a gun without following the order, they would only end up shooting themselves in the feet.
Jansining knew that these top-notch students possessed higher soul energy than himself. However, unlike the PA system that the students were familiar with, this was a real war, and soul energy was not the only factor in winning a real war.
Within the two days, Wang Tong had learned many things that he would never have learned from any textbook, and he recorded them in his field book.
‘First, make sure I am ready before entering the battle. The Zergs had learned to sneak up on human soldiers, so I had to be always prepared.’
‘Second, always keep my soul energy at a minimum level, and never turn if off completely. This was to reduce the reaction time during a sudden attack or ambush, and it was paramount to know the right amount of soul energy to maintain for myself since continually maintaining an unnecessarily high level of soul energy would tire me out pretty quickly.’
‘Third, don't chase after a fleeting Zerg. There could only be more danger where that b*stard came from, but you got just one life.’
‘Fourth, help each other. Saving my teammate is equal to saving myself.’
‘Fifth, practice tactics every night. Regardless of the tactics I cultivate, always practice it before I go to bed. The stronger I am, the more likely I am to survive.’
‘Sixth, take care of my METAL. Treat it like my high school sweetheart, regardless of she was pretty or not.’
Every day before Wang Tong went to bed, he would practice one round of tactics and clean his METAL meticulously.
Although those small insights he had learned were minor actions, Wang Tong had paid a costly price for every single one of them.
There are memory chips inside the METAL that covered the entire body to form the first layer of protection at only critical parts of the body. In other words, the METAL suit would not protect the soldier's entire body. In most cases, the best protection against oneself was to kill the Zerg as fast as possible.
After a day of Zerg-killing, Jansining called a meeting with everyone.
"Wang Tong, you have been on our team for over two days. How do you feel?" Jansining lit up a cigarette and asked calmly. Wang Tong's teammates appeared to be busying with their own work, but they were all listening to the conversion attentively.
"I wish I could be more involved." Wang Tong cracked a smile.
"Boss, this lad is quite a material. He didn't even flinch when he first saw those bugs. I say let him join us."
The one who was talking was called Third. He had two elder brothers, and they all died on the battlefield. No one knew his real name, so his teammates called him Third
After hearing Third's praise, the other teammates laughed agreeably. Third's observation was right, this 'burden' sent by the military had really exceeded their expectations. A worthy fresh blood would always be a welcoming sight.
"Seems like you get along pretty well. Tell you what, I will give you an actual duty tomorrow. Show us what you can do."
Jansining laughed. He had excluded Wang Tong in most of the team actions by ordering him to stand aside and watch. However, after two days of observation, Jansining had felt that Wang Tong seem to be more mature and experienced than he had thought.
"Hey you little sh*t, try to take on one of us first! Haha"
Everyone was instantly excited after hearing the promise of a brawl. Brawling might seem barbaric to peaceful civilians, but it was a simple team-building exercise for soldiers at the front line.
"Lieutenant, assign me an opponent please!"
"Hey! Be careful what you wish for. Haha. Fine, you can try a few punches on Big Head. See if his head gets any smaller. Haha"
"Big Head, be careful, this little prick is at the fourth level. If you lose, I'm going to make you clean up bug sh*t for a week! Haha"
"Oh, for f*ck’s sake! I didn't sign up for this! Well lad, come at me then, show me what you got."
"Please"
"Save your courtesy for your mama, kiddo! "
Big Head hurled his fist at Wang Tong's chest. A lethal direct attack was a soldier's most used method, since they didn't have the luxury to think and plan their moves when the Zerg's claw was just an inch away from them. Their simple attacks were potent and deadly, to make sure that every strike would kill at least a Zerg. Otherwise, the human would be quickly overwhelmed by the sheer number of Zergs.
During the battles on Norton, the humans had discovered a new kind of Zerg: the Hive Queen. It was harmless by itself, yet it was capable of producing a significant amount of Zerg offspring in a very short period. Therefore, these Hive Queens had become the main target of military's operations, and they ought to be eliminated first. The Hive Queen's death meant the demise of all Zergs in the same hive.
Researchers also found out that Zergs ate almost anything. They could quickly turn anything or, anyone, into pure energy to power their body. Some higher form of Zergs such as the Space Hive could directly absorb energy from lower form counterparts to quickly amass a significant amount of energy to perform unbelievable feats such as space warping.