As the assault boat stopped rocking and fell into silence, Hayes heard first coughs and quiet prayers, then a collective breath, as if at the command of some invisible command, that, despite initial misgivings, they were still alive.
Soon, the darkness suddenly gave way to dim shadowy light as the assault craft's emergency lighting system activated, and then he heard a familiar piercing voice begin to roar.
"Assemble! Assemble and prepare to disembark, lift your butts and act like soldiers, we have a war to fight, squatting in this iron coffin is courting death!"
Ouranios's voice was like a powerful whip, whipping everyone up from their chairs.
After releasing the restraints of the seat, Hayes also staggered to his feet. Winter beside him also followed Hayes' example and carefully poked his body with both hands to check whether his bones were broken.
To Hayes's relief, he had no injuries. Although his shoulders were sore and there was a little bruise from the belt, he could survive. Then he turned around and retrieved his laser gun. Winter still had both hands at this time. Legs feel weak.
"Chief Hayes, you, you, you. Look."
Hearing Winter's trembling voice, Hayes looked in the direction he was pointing, which was the chair behind Winter.
Sitting on the chair was a young soldier, his head tilted at a sickening angle, his eyes staring blankly, his jaw slack and motionless.
Hayes knew this man as Telles from the Second Company, but now he was dead, with a thin stream of blood flowing from his nostrils and mouth, staining his chin red.
Then he stretched his head to look at the seat restraints around Telles. Combined with the posture of the other person's head, Hayes realized that Telles's restraints were not fixed correctly, causing him to break his neck in the violent bumps of the landing. , and he may have bitten off his own tongue, which is one of the most common non-combat ways of death among recruits.
"May the Emperor be able to take you home."
Hayes reached out and closed Telles's eyes, and Winter sobbed after the initial fear, for Telles was his fellow countryman and his only fellow countryman in this strange regiment.
"Hayes, what are you dawdling about!? Let's go!"
Hearing Hashet's urging, Hayes turned his head and responded.
"I'm coming!"
Then he looked at Winter.
"Take Teles' nameplate. The God-Emperor may be busy, so you have to take him home."
Winter wiped away tears and took off Telles' nameplate, then grabbed his laser gun and followed Hayes to join the rest of the company, who lined up in an aisle between the rows of seats on the upper deck.
During this process, Hayes could even hear the sound of bullets and shells exploding from the outside of the hull. They were being shot at by the enemy, but this assault boat was indeed strong.
Soldiers quickly rushed down the lower deck, assault ramp, and headed for the exit.
As the bolts were activated, the ramp slowly opened. Under the maintenance of the officers, the soldiers walked out of the four exits in an orderly manner.
Hayes saw this new world, first with a gray sky above his head, then with a biting chill.
And above ground, there was only a desolate and barren landscape, a treeless flat landscape of frozen gray-black dirt, littered with bomb craters and the rusted outlines of burned-out vehicles.
To his east, he saw a distant landscape that looked like a small city. The buildings were as gray, ominous, and abandoned as the surrounding landscape. It looked like a ghost town, and Hayes shuddered—
A ghost town, hungry for more ghosts.
And he didn't see any other assault boats around, which meant that their battalion was probably out of line.
"A mining world, it's really bad."
Hashet looked at the world and murmured to himself, and Hayes immediately asked:
"Uncle Hashet, is there a lot of ore in the mineral world?"
Hashet shook his head.
"Not entirely, it has many holes, many holes that swallow flesh and blood. What's even worse is that we still have to get into the holes, but now we have to assemble with the large army first."
Ouranios had ended the communication with Arni at this time, and then immediately waved to everyone.
"Leave the landing site, leave the landing site! Our landing coordinates are wrong! There are enemies nearby-"
After speaking, he stopped and looked at the sky with anxious eyes. Everyone heard the sound of shells getting closer and closer.
"Avoid the gun!!"
Someone screamed as the entire battalion frantically ran to the side of the lander for shelter.
Seconds later, an explosion sent clouds of frozen mud flying.
"Mortar!"
Arni immediately judged the type of weapon from the sound of the gunfire, and then more gunshots and explosions rang out around them.
The firepower seemed to grow ominously by the minute as the sound of bullets and shells striking the hull on the other side of the lander grew so loud that they had to shout to be heard over the roar.
Ouranios immediately summoned Hashet.
"We're lucky, whoever's shooting is on the other side of the lander, but we can't stay here forever, we need to find better cover, otherwise their guns find range and land around the assault boats on us It’s just a matter of time before the head hits.”
At this time, the turret on the assault boat also began to fire back, but it could not stay on the ground for too long and needed to get back on track to transport other troops.
There was only five minutes left for Ouranios and the others.
Fortunately, the main force of the regiment was not far away from them, less than ten kilometers away. Arni ordered them to gather at the mining station that had been bombed by the empire, which was also the target they needed to capture.
"Hachet, I estimate that the number of this group of enemies does not exceed five hundred. You take your company from the left and use the Chimera to go around them. We will attract firepower from the front and we can only leave after we deal with them."
"OK!"
For five minutes, the assault boat went out with all its strength, and the soldiers also began to fire suppression shots in the approximate direction of the enemy. The two sides fought fiercely.
At the same time, the Second Battalion carried several Chimeras and began to make a large detour from the left. There happened to be a dry ditch on the side of the landing point, and the enemy's position was relatively low, which could just cover up the huge Chimera armored vehicles. size, while the soldiers followed the armored vehicles and ran as fast as they could.
Hayes ran with everyone, and Winter was also running hard. Ruthless gunshots continued to ring out not far away. The enemy had not discovered them for the time being, but it did not mean that they would never be discovered. After all, the Chimera was still very noisy.
Soon, Hashet asked Hayes to come to the side of a Chimera, lead his squad, and establish a machine gun position.
Hayes finally saw the enemy, lying on the ground, wearing dirty cloaks and wrinkled and patched overalls. Some of them even wore work helmets. They used various primitive firearms to shoot at the assault boats. shooting, and two mortars.
"beat!"
The gunfire suddenly rang out, and the attackers were startled. Hayes replaced 'Hairy Man' Cabri to operate the logging gun and shoot. When the bullets hit them, red blood spurted out from the chest, arms and head.
He watched those people scream and die, he saw people being killed by falling grenades, corpses torn apart by explosions and shrapnel, heads and limbs dismembered in an instant, his eyes kept staring into the distance, every breath he took They were all silent prayers for salvation, and his finger was tight on the trigger.
(End of chapter)
