6 High Ground Z3

The mess cook, whom they carried back was seriously injured. The insectoid's forearm had torn into his chest and abdomen as blood constantly poured out of his mouth. Green mucus had begun to form on both his wounds.

It was a substance that came from the giant beetle—a very powerful neurotoxin. In the absence of timely treatment, most people would not even survive half an hour, and many would die an extremely painful death. Qin Hao had seen too many of his comrades die from this toxin.

"Rest in peace, comrade!" Qin Hao took out his pistol and shot the mess cook in the head!

Bam!

A gunshot later, the mess cook closed his eyes as if he had been relieved of his suffering.

"Are you insane?! Ol' Four wasn't dead yet, why did you kill him?!" another mess cook shouted emotionally. He had been good buddies with the dead cook, and watching his friend die in the hands of his comrade was incomprehensible.

"If you suffer a fatal injury, I'll take you out of your misery! If it were me, I hope you'd do it too!" Qin Hao glared at the mess cook before he rushed toward High Ground Z3 without looking back.

"What should we do?" The few new recruits looked at each other. They did not know whether it was a blessing or a curse to follow such a cold-blooded veteran.

"Ol' Four..." A couple of mess cooks gathered around the dead Ol' Four and tried to leave with his body.

Hisss!!! Krrriieeekk... Following the sound of a whistling shriek, another swarm of giant beetles charged over!

"Move, now!" The first to react was the several new recruits. While they had no battlefield experience, all of them were trained combatants, so they could still assess the combat situation. They knew the worth of their weight, and without the veteran, they might not even be able to take on a single bug, much less a small swarm of them.

Therefore, the new recruits immediately followed Qin Hao and made haste toward High Ground Z3. Some of the mess cooks followed suit, leaving only three cooks who were good friends with Ol' Four. They were pulling his body along and taking each step with much difficulty.

Since they were dragging Ol' Four's body, the three cooks were moving a lot slower. Coupled with the stench of blood coming from Ol' Four's body, the small swarm of giant beetles was immediately attracted by it.

"Argh!!" one of the cooks screamed in terror as he keeled over and his foot gave way.

"F*cking dead weights!" Qin Hao, who had already gone ahead, ended up turning back. Even though reason told him that the mess cooks were all dead weights, he was not a completely cold-blooded war machine after all. Despite not knowing the mess cooks for a long time, he could not watch them die there.

Tat tat tat...

Qin Hao's electromagnetic rifle continued its bombardment as he shot out a precise line of fire. Although the scattered shots did not kill any of the giant beetles, the impact of the bullets and resulting pain still suppressed the swarm, preventing it from getting close.

Tat tat tat tat... Several recruits behind Qin Hao ran back and fired their electromagnetic rifles as well.

It was very easy to be emotionally affected on a battlefield. Seeing Qin Hao desperately return to save his companions, the recruits who bore the same weapons also went back without hesitation!

"You lot, get going!" Qin Hao yelled at the mess cooks who were carrying the body.

"Yes!" The men also knew that time was running out, so all three of them joined forces and lifted the body up as they ran ahead.

"Alternate suppressive fire!" Qin Hao shouted as he first withdrew from the battlefield. After he ran for a dozen meters, he turned around and opened fire at the swarm of giant beetles.

When retreating, escaping without thought would often result in being pursued from behind. In the end, no one would survive. After all, a two-legged human could not outrun a six-legged bug, so someone had to cover the retreat.

If anyone was sent to be a rearguard, it was as good as sending that person to his death. So, alternating suppressive fire had become a common tactic during retreats. While the new recruits had not been on an actual battlefield before, this tactical maneuver was nothing to them thanks to their professional military training.

Whenever Qin Hao re-opened fire, the new recruits would cease and retreat. Once they pulled themselves a distance away, they would start firing again to cover Qin Hao's retreat.

Just like that, Qin Hao and the recruits covered each other as they slowly moved toward High Ground Z3. The cooks supported each other too and carried Ol' Four's body all the way back to the grounds.

"Oy, you goons, not even one short?" The bear-like company commander, Ralph was already at High Ground Z3, but the soldiers under him were not as lucky as him. The 2nd Company had a total of more than a hundred people, and less than fifty had arrived at High Ground Z3 so far. Even if some soldiers were still on their way, the 2nd Company had pretty much suffered more than a thirty-percent loss!

When more than thirty percent of a combat unit were casualties, the unit would normally be pulled back and rested. Based on the Federation's doctrines, combat units that had lost more than thirty percent are considered badly damaged, and those suffering more than fifty percent were considered combat ineffective.

For a landing battle, however, no matter how many they managed to gather, all would have to charge forward. Such a battle was literally fought using human lives, and all units that landed on Alpha had experienced grievous losses. Thus, when Ralph saw Qin Hao and his mess squad all arrive at High Ground Z3 (while Ol' Four was K.I.A1, he too had arrived at High Ground Z3), he was quite surprised.

"You, get back to your units!" Ralph shouted at the new recruits. These individuals were ultimately combatants, while Qin Hao and the rest were mess cooks.

"Company commander, what should we do?" a cook asked.

"Find a place to lay low and stop bothering me!" Ralph roared as he walked off to assemble the troops. He could not be bothered to see mess cooks like Qin Hao and the rest. Unless it was time to eat, who would think of them?

Thump!!!

A massive thud later, a massive Gauss Cannon was airdropped onto High Ground Z3. The next second, heavy weapons arrived in succession, and the soldiers of the 106th Mechanized Infantry Division began to lay out defensive positions to secure their battle lines.

"Twelve o'clock! Enemy attack!" Following that shout, a massive swarm of bugs appeared north of High Ground Z3. Aside from the most basic giant beetles, there were also many plasma worms!

"Boom!!!!" A plasma worm in the distance had its back to High Ground Z3. Its huge belly, which shone with blue light, sharply contracted, and immediately after, a blob of plasma shot out of its tail toward the defending troops at the top of the grounds.