5 Landing Battle

Boom!!!

The falling landing craft was not the only one destroyed. When it hit the ground, it crushed another landing craft that did not manage to take off in time. No one knew if the soldiers inside the craft had made it out in time or not.

Vooosh!

Boom, boom! Krashhh!!

At that moment, the battlefield was filled with the clamor of shells ripping through the air and various explosions. A series of landing crafts touched down on the planet's surface, and a large number of mechanized infantry rushed onto the battlefield. However, a few landing crafts had also been shot down before they could even land.

On the brutal battlefield, casualties were not only on the human side. The giant, plasma-firing bugs suffered even heavier casualties. Earth Federation's warplanes were darting around in the air, and their energy cannons boomed continuously, blasting those massive insects into the sky in a spray of green blood as well as torn limbs.

"Stay with me! Find a place to take cover!" Qin Hao brandished his robotic arm. As a veteran, he had a duty to guide the new recruits around him in adapting to the battlefield, and the first step was to survive it now.

Duff!!

Qin Hao jumped and was the first to land into a massive crater, which had been blown out by a plasma bolt. While it was not considered absolutely safe, the chances of surviving there were greater compared with being exposed in the open!

"Shhusssh!" Qin Hao subconsciously touched his back, where he would have hung his electromagnetic rifle, but unfortunately, there was only a large sack of food in its place.

"Damn!" Qin Hao cursed silently. Even though food was important on the battlefield, it was obviously not as reassuring as a firearm.

"B-Boss... what should we do?" The ones who followed Qin Hao the closest were the mess cooks. They were plump and did not look like proper soldiers, but their luck had been really good, as none of them had been killed on the cruel battlefield yet.

Aside from the few cooks by his side, Qin Hao counted and found that there were four or five new recruits beside him. Although these people were combatants, because it was their first battle, all of them were white from fear and at a loss of what to do. If they had not been fortunate enough to follow Qin Hao, they would have been bug food a long time ago.

"Let's wait and see!" Qin Hao was still relatively calm. It was always like that during the initial landfall. The battlefield would be chaotic. The landing had to take place for some time, and the aircraft needed to completely suppress the bugs first. Only then would the landing soldiers be able to assemble and receive an effective command.

So now, all Qin Hao and the rest had to do was stay alive and wait until the battlefield cleared before they did anything else.

"But weren't our orders to take the beach? Aren't we doing nothing by lying down here—" A recruit pointed at his battlefield recorder on his shoulder and asked.

Booom!!! Before the recruit could even finish talking, a bomb dropped by a friendly aircraft exploded not too far away from the crater. The violent explosion killed a large number of giant beetles, while the blast kicked up a large amount of soil. The flying dirt and debris then knocked the recruit, who had just gotten up, back down onto the ground.

"Pfffttt..." Qin Hao snickered and did not give the new recruit an answer. In the event that they charged forward now, with their measly mechanized infantry equipment, they would end up as bug snacks if they ran into a small group of giant beetles.

Also at the same time, the starship squadron was bombing the insects indiscriminately, and the pilots simply had no way to mind the scattered infantry on the ground. If they were to charge around recklessly now, the chances of being hit by friendly fire were extremely high.

Boom! Boom! Boom... The explosions rang out as if they were by their ears while stone and earth constantly rained upon Qin Hao as well as the rest. Yet, Qin Hao was unmoved by it. As he lay by the edge of the crater, he carefully observed the situation on the battlefield.

"All units, immediately assemble at High Ground Z3!"

Right then, Qin Hao and the rest received a new order in their battlefield recorders. While he was only a mess cook, Qin Hao was still bound by the battle order. When a mission reached the 2nd Company, the mess squad would receive the orders as well.

"Go!" After Qin Hao received his orders, he seemingly changed into a different person. He previously nested in the crater like a timid mouse, but now, he used the power of his exoskeleton and promptly jumped out. Once he got out of the crater, Qin Hao quickly lowered his body to reduce his target profile and rushed toward the position of High Ground Z3.

"Keep up! Move it!" The mechanized infantry behind Qin Hao did not dare dally as they followed in his footsteps and hurried out of the crater.

High Ground Z3 was about 1.5 kilometers away from Qin Hao's position. Based on the mechanized infantry's training standards, they should be able to reach that position with a heavy load. After all, all mechanized infantry were equipped with a powered exoskeleton, and even the fat mess cooks were no exception. In this era, heavy-load marches were not overly difficult.

Nevertheless, training was different from the battlefield. The battlefield changed rapidly, and Qin Hao, as well as his small team, only consisted of a dozen people. Most of them were mess cooks without any heavy weapons. Meanwhile, the armed soldiers were all new recruits, so they needed to stay away from their enemies and try their best to not engage the giant beetles.

Hiss!!! A giant beetle bolted out of a crater, and it stabbed one of the cooks in the belly with its razor-sharp forearm before it lifted him up.

"Arrrrhhhh!!!" the cook cried out. Qin Hao got to know the guy when he first reported to the mess. He was the guy who led the rest in stewing the beef for Qin Hao.

"Give me your gun!" Qin Hao snatched an electromagnetic rifle from a recruit who was petrified with fear.

Rat tat tat!

Qin Hao skillfully released the safety, and immediately after, the electromagnetic rifle spat fire!

Tat tat tat... With Qin Hao's precise control of the electromagnetic rifle, every shot was not wasted. Like a trail of steel, the bullets accurately hit the giant beetle's forefoot.

Kraak! After a dozen rounds, the forefoot that Qin Hao had accurately fired upon, ruptured, and the mess cook fell down.

"Go and fetch him back!" Qin Hao shouted as he continued to fire the electromagnetic rifle, suppressing the giant beetle and preventing it from getting closer.

"Right!" Two new recruits rushed over. Although they had not been on a battlefield before, they had been trained, hence obeying orders had become instinct. So, Qin Hao's cry reminded them of their past instructors, and they subconsciously rushed forward to pull the mess cook back.