When the assault boat stopped rocking and fell into silence, Hayes first heard coughs and quiet prayers, and then everyone seemed to take a collective breath under the command of some invisible command. Despite some initial doubts, 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 on his body. Although his shoulders were sore and he had 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 disgusting angle, his eyes staring blankly, his jaw slack, motionless.
Hayes knew this man as Telles from the Second Company, but now that he was dead, a thin stream of blood flowed from his nostrils and mouth, staining his chin red.
Then he stretched his head to look at the seat restraints around Teles, and combined with the posture of the opponent's head, Hayes realized that Teles'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 also one of the most common non-combat ways of death for recruits.
"May the Emperor take you home."
Hayes stretched out his hand and closed Telles's eyes. Winter sobbed after the initial fear, because Telles was from the same country as him and was his only fellow countryman in this strange group.
"Hayes, what are you dawdling about!? Let's go!"
Hearing Hashet's urging, Hayes turned around and responded.
"I'm coming!"
Then he looked at Winter.
"Take Teles' nameplate. The God-Emperor may be very busy, so you have to take him home."
Winter wiped away tears, 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 by the enemy, but this assault boat was indeed strong.
The soldiers quickly rushed down the lower deck, assaulted the ramp, and rushed to 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, and then with a biting chill.
On the 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 the distant landscape, which seemed to contain a small city. The buildings were as gray, ominous and abandoned as the surrounding landscape. It looked like a ghost town, which made Hayes shudder -
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.
"It's a terrible mining world."
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 artillery 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 threw up frozen mud.
"Mortar!"
Arni immediately judged the type of weapon from the sound of the gunfire, and then more gunshots and explosions sounded around them.
The firepower seemed to grow ominously by the minute as the sound of bullets and shells hitting the hull on the other side of the lander became so loud that they had to shout to be heard over the roar.
Ouranios immediately summoned Hatshet.
"We're lucky that 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 return to orbit 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.
"Hashet, I estimate that the number of this group of enemies does not exceed 500. You take your company from the left and use the Chimera to go around it. 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 work clothes. Some people 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 personally operate the logging gun and shoot. When the bullets hit them, red blood spurted out from their chests, arms and heads.
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 instantly dismembered, his eyes kept staring into the distance, every breath he took
They were all silent prayers, hoping for salvation, while his finger was tightly on the trigger.