Vol 14: Chapter 11-2.

A weight dropped on Zheng’s heart. He took a deep breath and said hastily. "Zero, lead a group to patrol all sides. Shoot down any hoppers you see. The wind here is strong. They are weaker than regular bugs when they can’t fly. Kill as much as you can. Xuan, arrange troopers to guard the borders. Gando! Protect Lan. Go with her to the center of the army. That’s it for now. We can’t stop the hoppers completely for now so we can only take things as they come. Let them come up and shoot them down one by one."

One hour left. Three groups of troopers began finding and carrying rocks under Xuan’s orders. A lot of ammunition were expended by now. Part of the remaining ammunition were given to those patrolling the border. So there were only a thousand magazines left. Yet the bugs’ attack was as fierce as before. Countless warrior bugs climbed the road in waves. The addition of blaster bugs, jungle spiders, and the occasional tanker bug nearly broke through their front at times. They spent several nukes and almost all the grenades to keep their defense in place.

So many bugs died that even when the blaster bugs incinerated a majority of them and the rest stamped by the sea of bugs, a layer of bug paste still elevated the road. Starting from the 500 meter mark where most bugs died, there was a 20 meter high hill followed by a sudden drop. This increased the distance the bugs had to climb. The hill was also beneficial to their aiming but not so much to the rocks. The hill would stop the rocks at the 500 meter mark.

Zheng observed the area and thought for a moment. "WangXia, save five nukes. And don’t nuke that hill before we completely depleted our ammunition. That’s it for now. F*cking we can’t use the plasma grenades and mines. Those are as powerful as the nukes. The EMP rifle can also easily take care of the bugs. Even my Tiger’s Soul..."

WangXia smiled bitterly. The plasma bombs were way more powerful than these grenades. One that could take in 50% of Zheng’s Qi would had power equivalent to the tactical nukes. The most important thing was a nuke’s power was concentrated in the center and becomes weaker as you get further away. The effective area was only fifty meters in radius. However, the plasma bombs could vaporize everything where the plasma balls go.

Time continued ticking and so was their ammunition. Troopers who were aware of it felt the knives hanging over their heads. At the same time, the hoppers finally showed their face after climbing for so long. They attempted to lift off but the strong wind would blow them off at three meters above the ground. These hoppers could only fly close to the ground got shot down by the patrolling troopers. Yet, their number was in the thousands. More and more began showing up after the first one.

"Time? And the rescue ships? Xuan! Only 200 magazines left! How much longer!"

Zheng was almost shouting at this point. He observed the scan and saw a few more tanker bugs coming up. They were slow but their size and ability were decisive factors. If any one of them came close, that also meant the fall of their defense!

"No use talking about time now. We just contacted the rescuing starships. They said dozens of ships had been sent down, enough to take in tens of thousands of people. Such fools. If there really are tens of thousands for them to save, there wouldn’t be a need to ask for help. Laughable mortal’s wisdom. This is basically the situation. The rescue ships will enter the atmosphere in thirty minutes. Which means we will be able to board the ships in thirty to forty five minutes. This is a conservative estimate." Xuan’s voice didn’t come through soul link but rather from behind.

Zheng turned around to see Xuan standing there with the gauss pistols and a satirical smile.

Zheng gave him a surprise look and asked. "What are you here for? Is it fine to use our weapons?"

Another pistol slipped out into his hand. "The gauss pistols have a similar look to the army’s pistols. You have be in close range to distinguish the two. Plans, schemes and raising morale are useless at this point. The only thing we can do is continue fighting as before or get swarmed by the sea of bugs. I don’t particularly like this kind of combat but there are no other good choice."

Zheng laughed and patted him on the shoulder. "That mortal’s wisdom again. Anyway, since you can use the gauss pistols, kill a few more bugs. But don’t use your gun kata too early. That state can’t last too long."

Suddenly, dozens of jungle spiders were flying over. A tactical nuke was fired before most of the troopers could react. A brilliant light flashed over the battlefield. Then three balls landed on the ground and instantly stretched out into the jungle spiders. Zheng and Xuan looked at each other then charged at the spiders. With one person in close combat and one shooting from range, the jungle spiders were eliminated before they could cause a disaster. Even so, ten troopers were killed during the time.

WangXia’s voice transmitted over. "Only five nukes left. A few more waves of spiders and we won’t have any more nukes to attack."

Zheng looked over the troopers and said. "Don’t use any more nukes. Let the spiders land. Xuan, send the remaining groups over. We need to start throwing rocks and replace any troopers that get killed by the spiders."

Xuan nodded and went to the back of the army. "Remember what I said before? When we fall into desperation, go attack the other team. Kill them, capture, or injure them. The bugs might hesitate if we have hostages in hand. The chance is lower than 30% but it is still better than waiting to die."

Zheng smiled bitterly as he looked out the battlefield. The sea of bugs was never ending. The hill was piling up higher and it pushed forward another 100 meters. There were only 400 meters in between them and the bugs. Plus a hundred magazines left.

Zheng ordered the troopers to stop using ammunition. They leave fifty to themselves then gave the rest to the patrolling troopers. The troopers then lined up to transfer rocks and push them down. Zheng had WangXia use two nukes on the hill to blast down the hill of dead bugs.

The large rocks rolled down the incline. They reached an unstoppable speed after a hundred meters. The first wave of bugs were smashed to pieces by these rocks. Even the blaster bugs were knocked over. The bugs were pushed back to the 700 meter mark for a while.