Bab 116: Chapter 116: The Strange Frontline, Battle of Jia City
The next morning, everyone was already geared up and ready, lined up in the parking lot of the service area without any orders from their superiors. Lin Feng, the highest-ranking officer, was the last to rise, only getting up when Chen Yanyan came to wake him. He yawned as he emerged from the bedroom.
Once he was ready, it was already six o'clock in the morning. The team was lined up and eager to go.
Lin Feng instructed Li Ran and Shen Jie to select those who could drive and move quickly to head out on the highway to find abandoned vehicles. These cars were plentiful, with several visible every hundred meters or so.
Most of them were large vehicles like SUVs and pickup trucks, notorious for their fuel consumption.
With enough fuel, they were better suited for field operations than ordinary cars.
Soon, Shen Jie and the others returned with thirty vehicles from the roadside.
Four people per car were enough to accommodate all of the 201 Company. As for the fifty or so veteran soldiers and new recruits who had fled, Lin Feng didn't plan to take them along for now.
Firstly, there hadn't been enough interaction to understand them, and secondly, they couldn't immediately receive the same treatment as the seasoned members of the 201 Company.
The temporary camp also needed guards.
The veterans among the fifty outsiders naturally wanted to continue following Li Ran, participating in the insect extermination.
But some of the new recruits, terrified by previous experiences, weren't ready for battle, despite Lin Feng's demonstrations of power and promises of equipment.
Field combat without any fortifications was far more dangerous.
In the wild, facing the insects head-on was a hundred times more perilous than hiding in a fortress.
A single Black Spinal Bug could use its massive jaws to severely injure a human.
Whether an awakener or clad in Red Armor, no one could withstand those sharp jaws.
With a bite force of several tons, they could easily breach external armor and cut a human in half.
During their escape, the new recruits had witnessed many comrades brutally killed by Black Spinal Bugs.
Their bodies were devoured by Red Beetles beneath the insect swarm, leaving nothing behind.
The hellish scenes were unforgettable, haunting them even in sleep with nightmares.
These surviving new recruits were unfit for battle.
Lin Feng didn't want to force them back into combat, risking desertion and greater crises.
He assigned them to remain with the veterans, guarding the remaining eighty tons of steel plates, more suitable than taking them into battle.
Around eight o'clock, Lin Feng's Land Cruiser Battleship drove off the highway into muddy terrain, followed by thirty SUVs and pickup trucks.
These civilian vehicles, though not military-grade, were far more comfortable than the previous troop transports. With sunroofs open and teammates, they could still attack the Black Spinal Bug swarms.
About ten minutes later, they had driven thirteen kilometers and began spotting Red Beetles and numerous burrow entrances.
The insect invasion hadn't halted.
Lin Feng ordered a stop, distributing shotguns from the battleship's storage to each team member.
With 5,000 rounds each and over a hundred shotguns, they could easily handle an army of thousands of Black Spinal Bugs.
After distributing, Lin Feng ordered a continued advance.
As the team moved deeper, Lin Feng's enhanced telepathy revealed no signs of Black Spinal Bugs within the insect territory, including collapsed and occupied outposts.
Besides Red Beetles collecting human corpses, the patrolling Black Spinal Bugs seemed to have vanished. In both the southern Wu City and the main battlefield, they were nowhere to be seen.
Faced with this strange phenomenon, Lin Feng wondered if the queen was scared, intentionally retracting her forces to prevent further exploitation.
Instantly killing three Tiger Bugs was indeed impressive, but it was also a surprise, unexpected for the enemy.
With Cyan Wing and Wind Wing Bugs patrolling, humanity's precious aerial weapons, like third and fourth-generation jets and attack helicopters, had suffered massive losses.
The insects' unique structures provided extreme agility, outmaneuvering heat-seeking missiles and laser locks.
Many aircraft were downed by swarming flying insects early in the war.
This indirectly reduced the ground forces' firepower, preventing large-scale bombardments.
The army was left to fight alone, struggling to hold positions.
They could only rely on long-range supersonic missiles, pre-locking targets for penetration, but even that yielded minimal results.
With the "decapitation plan" drilling missile strategy failing, Tier 2 insects and the queen relaxed against aerial threats.
In their minds, the insect side had long secured air superiority.
Lin Feng's sudden appearance disrupted this balance.
Now, the Black Spinal Bugs couldn't be exposed to explosive attacks.
Gazing at the empty, barren wastelands, Lin Feng considered another possibility.
With Cheng Zhan's parasitic host reporting, the queen knew of humanity's biological gene-modification plans.
If the queen received news of the host being pursued by gene warriors, sending three Tier 2 Tiger Bugs for rescue made sense.
The three Tiger Bugs ensured the host's safety and tested humanity's gene warriors.
It assessed whether gene warriors could reverse the war's outcome and threaten the queen.
Unexpectedly, Lin Feng's unforeseen appearance swiftly killed the three Tier 2 Tiger Bugs and the host.
Unaware of the details, the queen likely assumed the defeat was due to gene warriors.
Qin Hu's combat prowess would be overestimated, leading the queen to believe humanity could mass-produce powerful gene warriors from captured Tier 1 and Tier 2 insects.
Gene warriors, with insect gene enhancements and innate abilities, could easily outmatch their peers...
In the wild, they could fight multiple foes.
Humans retained intelligence, surpassing most Tier 2 insects in cunning.
Allowing Black Spinal Bugs and Tiger Bugs to be captured for gene warrior production was a huge loss for insects!
The queen concluded that even if her swarms were killed on the spot, they couldn't be captured.
Thus, she canceled Black Spinal Bug patrols, leaving only low-level Red Beetles to build nests and gather food.
All Black Spinal Bugs were stationed near the underground queen's lair.
This better protected the queen during her upgrade slumber and prevented capture, avoiding enemy force augmentation.
Lin Feng was unaware of the queen's slumber, thinking the insect territory's eerie emptiness was its most vulnerable state.
Missing this opportunity, the upgraded lv34 queen would wield even greater power, her mid-Tier 3 dominance declared!
A mid-Tier 3 queen could exponentially increase her low-tier insect numbers, and Tier 2 insects would gain abilities from assimilated human powers.
When these new Tier 2 insects emerged, humanity would be caught off guard.
As a bio-weapon factory, the queen had evolved to counter human fortress and defense strategies.
Even in fortified outposts, humans couldn't escape the insects' jaws!
Now, Lin Feng was in a dilemma.
After boosting morale, readying his team to return to the battlefield, he faced an unexpected situation.
To lure Black Spinal Bugs and attract insect attention, Lin Feng ordered Shen Jie to lead a team to the insect territory's edge, using heavy machine guns to kill nearby Red Beetles.
Using past tactics, the mass Red Beetle deaths were meant to draw Black Spinal Bugs.
As machine-gun fire echoed over the wasteland, hundreds of Red Beetles died, retreating underground.
Across the hundred-acre insect territory, aside from complex subterranean tunnels, no living insects were visible.
Lin Feng frowned, the driver Chen Yanyan turning to ask:
"Should we drive in for a search?"
"Too bad the life radar lacks energy, or we could scan a kilometer underground."
Watching Shen Jie and others return in vain, Lin Feng pondered.
He planned to use the upgraded lv20 Land Cruiser Battleship as a trump card against potential Tiger Bugs. With a hundred awakeners armed with shotguns, they would decimate Black Spinal Bugs, forcing Tiger Bugs to intervene.
But neither Tiger Bugs nor Black Spinal Bugs were detected, even with telepathy.
The situation left Lin Feng with two choices: withdraw or venture into the insect tunnels.
Retreat meant wasted efforts and morale, while risking unknown dangers explored the latter.
The missing Black Spinal Bugs and Tiger Bugs likely hid in secret underground chambers. Fighting underground with shotguns or the Armor-Piercing Cannon risked structural collapse.
Buried insects could be excavated by Red Beetles, but Lin Feng's side would suffer.
For tunnel combat, only a select few elites with melee weapons could ensure safety.
Gene warriors fit this role well.
For now, only Lin Feng and Shen Jie met the criteria; others lacked the courage and strength for close combat with Black Spinal Bugs.
Unless he equipped everyone with lv10+ Red Xuan Armor and cold weapons capable of piercing Black Spinal Bug shells.
The absent Black Spinal Bugs negated this plan.
As Lin Feng considered ordering Chen Yanyan to pilot the Land Cruiser Battleship into the insect territory for scans...
Shen Jie, having failed the lure mission, approached with another solution:
"How about heading further south? Reports mentioned two queens invading Haicheng, and Ning City at the Yangtze estuary's south has another queen."
"They're likely in Jia City now."
"The insects there haven't faced major retaliation, so they might be less vigilant."
Shen Jie's suggestion sparked Lin Feng's thoughts. They weren't short on fuel or weapons, so focusing on the nearby queen was unnecessary.
They could head south, targeting less experienced queens.
Wu City's defense was doomed; his soldiers felt little attachment.
Killing insects was killing insects—why not choose the easy target?
Lin Feng checked his phone's downloaded map. Jia City lay directly south of Wu City, just over 20 kilometers away.
From Haicheng's service area, it was closer, only 15 kilometers.
Ning and Jia Cities lacked significant resistance, so the queen likely expanded into Jia City...
Yet as Lin Feng studied the map, a new worry emerged.
If the Ning City queen invaded Jia City, it might continue northwest, expanding behind Taihu...
Cutting off the Thirteenth Division and Lin Feng's retreat once more!
The research institute stated that insect survival and proliferation required vast water sources. They used rivers and large lakes as stepping stones to invade continents.
As one of the Federation's four great lakes, Dahu might attract multiple queens.
If the insects accessed ample water, it would be a disaster for Jin City and Jiangnan's Huizhou.
Both logically and morally, Lin Feng should intervene, preventing the Jia City queen from advancing north.
Deciding swiftly, Lin Feng agreed with Shen Jie, gathering Li Ran and other leaders to announce the plan.
Once consensus was reached, they turned north, taking the highway to Jia City's northern service area.
As the convoy proceeded, they encountered numerous bug holes along the ring road.
Many Red Beetles continued digging.
Unlike Wu City's Red Beetles, these showed no caution toward the convoy, even approaching to harvest human flesh.
They were met with heavy machine gun fire from open windows, large-caliber bullets tearing them apart.
The continued deaths didn't deter the insects; more Red Beetles gathered from the burrows, preparing a full assault.
Lin Feng hadn't seen such scenes in a while.
His last experience was during the Haicheng escape, before becoming an awakener.
These bugs were adorably foolish.
Seizing the opportunity, Lin Feng ordered small-unit tactics, allowing free action.
Ten heavy machine guns sufficed for hundreds of Red Beetles, not worth using shotguns.
With thousands of Red Beetles dead at Jia City's edge, their numbers reached the terrifying thousands...
Ordinary people could become hundreds of lv9 enhancers from this!
Soon, a massive Black Spinal Bug swarm poured from the city, charging directly at Lin Feng's convoy.
The swarm's attack lacked the coordination of Haicheng's queen, showing no evasion skills...
Just a mindless charge.
Lin Feng lowered the Armor-Piercing Cannon's scope, smirking...
Time to teach this inexperienced, arrogant queen a lesson!
A hundred soldiers formed a semicircle around the convoy, with the sergeant's Land Cruiser Battleship at their backs.
Excitement shone on their faces, gripping their shotguns tight.
As thousands of Black Spinal Bugs entered the 5 km range...
To kill as many as possible, leaving none behind, they held their breath, awaiting the sergeant's command!
Four kilometers, three kilometers, two kilometers...
As the swarm pressed closer...
One kilometer...
Five hundred meters!!
Staring down the charging Black Spinal Bugs, their hearts raced.
Without orders, they couldn't fire.
This moment tested their willpower!
Conquering fear within!
Until the lead Black Spinal Bugs were a hundred meters away, many trembled with tension!
From the bow, Lin Feng's command rang out!
"Fire!"
Hundreds of lv19 shotguns unleashed a volley!!
Boom boom, boom boom boom!!!
Boom boom, boom boom boom!
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