Chapter 149, Killing Jar
After Schneider killed the biggest, greenest orc boss, the battle was almost over.
His other four battle brothers, along with twenty-eight Storm Troopers who were considered quite capable in the eyes of the Space Marines, plus the fire cover of the Infantry Regiment, killed all forty or fifty Orcs who had charged with the greenskin leader.
There is no need to say much about the abilities of the Space Marines. Apart from the fact that he encountered a greenskin leader who was somewhat capable after being strengthened, which gave him a little exercise, his battle brothers basically did not encounter any decent opponents.
When those ordinary green-skinned guys encounter the electromagnetic rifles in the hands of the special forces soldiers of the Storm Squad, they cannot withstand them like they can the G9 rifles. They will often die after being hit by a dozen bullets.
After making sure that all the greenskins had been killed and there were no survivors who could leak the information of his group, he could finally rest assured.
They hadn't originally planned to take action.
The 4th Infantry Regiment's proactive attack was originally to cover their actions. It would be best if they could successfully eliminate all the greenskins in this area. After all, as long as all the enemies were killed, it would be the most perfect infiltration.
Even if the attack failed, it didn't matter. After attracting enough attention, the 33-man task force could completely bypass the battlefield from the side while the frontal battle was in full swing, and it would also be unnoticed.
In fact, that was what they had intended.
However, after observing the situation on the front battlefield, their commander changed his mind and decided to implement the first strategy: kill all the enemies.
Schneider knew that it was their Chapter Captain Martins who felt bad watching those mortal soldiers die in order to cover their mission.
Of course, he didn't object. After all, as long as they were all killed, and no greenskins came back to report the news, it would be fine. There were only a few dozen left, so killing them all wouldn't be a big deal.
The key is to satisfy your craving for it.
After the battle, Schneider took off his helmet, revealing his shiny forehead.
He felt a special gaze, so he turned his head and saw the man in the red hat staring at him.
In the past, Schneider always disdained and completely ignored these mortals. But at this moment, he couldn't help but think of the red hat named Thadius, who did what his dead brother couldn't do.
Although the man in front of him did not accomplish any heroic deeds, he remained fearless in the face of danger and was still able to maintain the dignity of a warrior in the face of death.
Is worthy of respect.
He nodded towards the man in the red hat for some unknown reason, then turned and left.
Reid Mesheko also came to his senses.
He actually survived.
Looking at the fight between the Space Marine and the greenskin just now, there is no doubt that if it were me, I would have died eight hundred times.
It seems that there is still a huge gap between a mortal like him and those monsters.
But regardless, the battle should be won.
Slowly putting down the gun in his hand, he turned back and found their leader.
They also need to clean up this position and take back the wounded and even the bodies of dead teammates. Even if they died tragically, they must at least take away the armbands and badges that symbolize the soldier's identity.
After cleaning up the battlefield, they will withdraw.
The position here cannot be defended for long. The fortifications built by those greenskins are already poor, not to mention that they were bombed once; this place is far away from the lines of other friendly forces, making it inconvenient to provide support.
All these problems combined made it impossible for them to fight back if they faced a counterattack from the greenskins in the future.
But giving up this position does not mean that their attack is worthless.
In addition to providing cover for the special operations team, their infliction of damage to the enemy's manpower was also sufficient.
In this battle, nearly 500 greenskins died. Comparatively speaking, the price paid by the human side was the casualties of more than 320 soldiers.
This casualty ratio is higher than when they were fighting a defensive battle.
Of course, there are special reasons.
After all, the price paid by the human side was not just more than 300 lives, but also 600 heavy artillery shells.
If a batch of newly produced artillery shells had not been pulled over from Weixing City recently, we would have been reluctant to fire so many in just one hour.
Of the greenskins that were destroyed, at least half were killed in the previous bombardment. Of the remaining two hundred, more than fifty were killed by the special operations team. The real achievements of the 4th Infantry Regiment were only a little over a hundred greenskins.
Of course, an exchange ratio of about 3:1 is actually acceptable.
But the risks involved cannot be ignored.
They won the battle and wiped out their opponents.
But what if we don’t win?
If it were not for Mesheko's iron-fisted execution of several officers when the entire army was in turmoil, and if it were not for the instructors at all levels to maintain troop discipline, and if it were not for the regiment commander leading by example to boost morale, they would most likely have been defeated at that time.
Once they collapse, the death toll will probably soar during their escape. Not only will they be unable to kill the greenskins, but their casualties may increase several times during the pursuit. If they are chased too hard, even if they return to their original positions, they may not be able to stop the collapse of the entire army, which will cause big trouble.
In a war, the winning side always gains more.
In addition to killing a large number of greenskins, they also gained another thing: the morale of the army was improved.
It was a tough battle, but we won it in the end. Although there were some twists and turns in the process, as long as we won, the morale, combat confidence, and combat experience of the entire army would be improved. The soldiers who had faced the greenskins head-on, since they survived, would not be so afraid the next time they faced the greenskins.
When they were adventurers in the past, the shadow cast by those greenskins on them was too deep.
The greenskin phobia can be alleviated a little bit, the better.
…
While the 4th Infantry Regiment was clearing the battlefield, the 33-man special operations team had already set out on their journey again.
From then on, there were no friendly forces to provide cover for them.
But it’s not really necessary anymore.
After passing through the enemy's most densely packed lines and arriving at the rear, in this urban ruins area that was 60 kilometers wide and nearly 100 kilometers deep, it was obviously impossible for those greenskins to have manpower everywhere.
On the contrary, they only number tens of thousands of people, and this place that "belongs" to them is full of leaks.
Occasionally you'll see some greenskins and fart spirits, but it's not so easy to find their traces.
The stealth skills of the Space Marines are beyond reproach. Even though they are wearing heavy power armor, when they don't want to make any noise, their footsteps really make no sound. As for the 28 special forces members, they are also well versed in stealth operations.
They are the only ones who can discover the enemy in advance, and it is rare for them to be discovered.
When they are deep behind enemy lines, they will try their best to avoid fighting, which helps reduce the chance of being exposed.
But if they really encounter someone they have no choice but to fight, for example, if they are discovered, or if there is someone on their route and it takes a long time to go around them, then they will choose to take action.
Even if you do fight, try not to use a gun.
Approach quietly and attack quickly, combat daggers and sabers have become the main weapons.
Martins' chainsword doesn't even make a roaring sound, it just relies on the teeth to tear people into pieces.
There was really no target worthy of him turning the chainsaw on.
In this way, they moved among the ruins for about a day and a night, with only a few hours of rest in between.
They went as deep as possible and expanded the scope of investigation as much as possible.
Unfortunately, the greenskins were very difficult to communicate with, and since they didn't speak the same language, they couldn't capture their tongues and interrogate them to get the information they wanted.
But they still made a significant discovery the next afternoon.
They found a greenskin starting position.
Sixty kilometers deep into the front line, a storm squad's action team discovered a group of farts driving trucks and pushing carts, converging somewhere.
After they passed the information back, the entire team began to grope in that direction, and then they found the starting position.
The greenskins had cleared a large area of land, where more than ten thousand greenskin creatures gathered in a noisy manner. A third of them were greenskin boys, and there were almost twice as many fart spirits as them.
Fartlings are also a kind of greenskin, and they are also monsters that grow from greenskin spores. They are shorter, thinner, and more timid than the orc boys, but they are just as cruel as the other orc boys. They bully the weak and fear the strong. When they encounter a strong enemy, if there is no orc to suppress them, they will easily lose morale and scatter; but when the enemy is weaker than them, or there are far fewer of them, they will become the most cruel executioners and love to kill.
In the greenskin society, farts usually exist as slaves, servants of the orcs, and even as food.
In this starting position, the number of enemies alone was already huge. Putting aside those fart spirits, there were more than 3,000 orc boys alone. This was almost more than any other green-skinned orcs they faced on the front line.
Moreover, reinforcements are constantly coming here from all over.
No one knows how many people they can gather in the end.
What's more, the greenskins gathered here are not only numerous, but also well-equipped.
We won't talk about the armed pickup trucks and the iron barrel cannons that have already appeared. Martins and his companions also saw two other big guys.
The first is an armored truck.
It is called a truck, but in fact the rear compartment is sealed with armor plates and has an outward-extending shooting position, so that the entire truck compartment has a rather awkward shape. There is also a machine gun on the top of the front of the truck, and a bulldozer is installed on the front of the truck. The entire appearance looks chaotic, wild, and unreasonable.
However, this is the nature of greenskin technology. No matter how unreasonable it looks, the greenskins think it is reasonable, then this thing can move, and it works well.
The other thing was of the same style, but it made everyone present feel heavy-hearted: That was... 'power armor', 'war mecha? '?
Whatever it was, it was found among many greenskin clans. The humans called it the 'killing jar'.
A fart spirit or a disabled greenskin is stuffed into a tin can. Due to the greenskin's shocking technology, this is obviously not a wearable or uninstallable thing, but eternal life is integrated into this machine.
The mechanical structures extending from the upper and lower sides of the water tank are the limbs. The upper arms are equipped with close combat or long-range weapons, and there are also large-caliber machine guns on both sides of the tank.
This thing has appeared on many battlefields where greenskins have rampaged. They are not the greenskins' main armored units, and the greenskins have bigger ones. However, when such a thing that stands three meters tall appears on the battlefield and can move flexibly on battlefields where many armored vehicles cannot move, its armor level and firepower will make human infantry feel desperate.
Even Space Marines cannot ignore such an opponent. A few more shots from the machine guns on both sides of the water tank are enough to break through the power armor; the double-fired rocket launcher that can be automatically loaded with explosives in one hand also has a good killing power, and being hit by the big axe will be fatal.
Of course, generally speaking, Space Marines win more often. Each of the five veterans present had destroyed at least five killing tanks.
But that is a career achievement, not a one-time victory. If you really need to be besieged at once, you don't need five people, two or three would be too much.
And now, in this greenskin army that was still gathering, they saw ten such killing tanks.
As more greenskins gather behind, who knows if there will be more.
Armed trucks that can rival the Wanderer armored vehicles, killing tanks that are equivalent to the beggar version of power armor, and more than three thousand greenskins gathered together, among which there are many powerful leaders, or "tough guys" who are much stronger than ordinary greenskins...
If such a force reaches the front line and launches a direct attack anywhere, the consequences will be devastating.
Humans who are not prepared will almost certainly be crushed to pieces.
Fortunately, they have discovered it.
Now that we have the information, things will be easy.
They did not alert the enemy. After marking the coordinates, they left quietly and reported the information to the Governor.
They didn't carry any communication equipment, nor did they need to. The power armor worn by the Space Marines had integrated corresponding communication modules, and was also connected to the wireless communication channel of the front-line command post. The communication tower erected at the front-line command post did this job, and when facing the greenskins, they should not have to worry too much about the threat of radio being monitored.
They have no control over how the governor will deal with this information later.
The subsequent instructions they received were to continue exploring and, according to the predetermined objectives, to find the greenskins' base camp, their arsenal, their "farms" and hatcheries.
It may have been a bit confusing before, but now it’s easier.
Two Space Marines were left behind with several members of the Storm Squad to keep an eye on the large group of greenskins at the starting position, while the rest followed the route of the converging greenskins and went in the opposite direction to explore the source.
(End of this chapter)
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