164: What? This is the main force?

"You mean, the ones we just kicked to death were their main force?"

After searching the surrounding area, the Ninth Mobile Fleet could no longer find any high-value enemy targets, at most just two or three small patrol boats.

It was only after they captured a patrol fleet and interrogated the prisoners that Xi Hai realized the two thousand-plus Warship that they had just kicked to death as a vanguard were actually these guys' main force.

Are you kidding me?

How did you guys dare to venture out with a pile of junk ships?

It's one thing not to bring super capital ships (cruiser and above), but how could you not even be willing to bring a single cruiser?

Huh? Answer me!

Xi Hai was speechless. The small ship that the storm had just taken down, which looked like a heavy destroyer, was actually the largest Warship here.

Looking at the abstract battle report, Xi Hai felt a wave of speechlessness.

But although speechless, he hadn't forgotten the main task—there were still two research officers buried in the ground, and an ownerless megastructure waiting for him to dig up...

Ah, no, wait, what "ownerless"? If I find it, it's mine.

Thinking this, he opened the ship-wide channel and ordered:

"Attention everyone!"

"Target is the indigenous city of Baghdad, prepare for orbital landing!"

"There are two missions: rescue the two research officers, and take control of that buried megastructure!"

"Clear all enemies in the way!"

...

...

Since it wasn't a shock landing, the Marine Corps of the Ninth Mobile Fleet didn't choose to use those disposable landing pods.

In comparison, they preferred those modified Shuttle: they could fly amphibiously, serve as cover, and provide a certain amount of fire support.

Of course, the most important thing was that after using them, they could pick them up, wash them, and use them again next time—

"Buzz buzz buzz buzz—"

The Shuttle skimmed over low altitude and soon arrived at the planned landing site.

"Reached the target area, enemy small-scale forward base discovered."

"Beginning suppression now—"

"Twelve missiles, away."

The missiles trailed white smoke as they left the racks, smashing into the forward base with earth-shattering power.

A large number of yujin people Marine who had just reacted didn't even have time to run before they merged into the shining fireballs.

"Ground conditions are good! Indicator light is on! Hatch opening!"

"Altitude ten, nine, eight, seven..."

"Boom!"

The moment the Shuttle's landing gear touched the ground, the Marine inside immediately split into two teams and rushed out.

They moved in groups of three, using existing cover to build a makeshift defensive line on the spot, aiming their muzzles at the directions where enemies might suddenly appear.

The Shuttle that finished dropping off the troops ascended at top speed to clear space for the next column.

Due to certain historical factors, the Guardian Angel Legion had very strong infantry combat skills and equipment adaptability.

Even though this was their first time using modified Shuttle for a landing battle, they performed as if they had been training for over a decade—

In less than five minutes, a squadron of 3,600 people and all their equipment had been deployed and were rapidly forming battle arrays while braving the suppression fire that popped up from time to time in the forward base.

"11 o'clock, first window on the upper left, suspected heavy fire point!"

"Understood!"

"Boom—"

The dreadnought and infantry cooperated to clear a safe zone, and then, the combat engineers in the rear quickly began unpacking supply crates and vehicle air-drop racks.

"Creak, creak, creak, creak—"

In less than five minutes, the sound of tracks friction rang out; the armored personnel carriers, broken down for air-drop, were assembled and drove onto the streets.

"Get on!"

The squad leaders in charge of each group shouted in the command channel, calling their members to board the armored personnel carriers.

First, the infantry wearing red and white powered armor climbed into the compartment, and then the huge refrigerator mecha climbed onto the roof, securing its body.

"The target is the large sinkhole in the city center!"

"There will be support from the air! Don't worry about enemy resistance!"

"The holy Grand Duke Chu Xiluo is watching us! Floor the accelerator for me!"

"Advance! Advance! Advance!"

The squadron leader in charge of field command roared in the squad channel.

Seemingly responding to the high morale, the overloaded drive wheels on the armored vehicles made a "buzzing" sound, the steel tracks hummed, and the dashboard needle pegged to the bottom—

That's right, after being overloaded, these light armored personnel carriers were actually running faster than their theoretical maximum speed.

The yujin people left behind in the forward base, except for a small number of Marine, were basically logistics units.

Facing the speeding armored vehicles, their fate was either to be turned into mud by being run over, or to luckily dodge the first vehicle only to be intentionally turned into mud by the ones behind.

However, this drag race didn't last long.

The convoy drove out of the streets and entered an open area, then—

"Screech—"

They immediately slammed on the brakes.

"Click."

"What the hell... braking so hard..."

The squadron leader, who had almost been killed by the emergency brake, cursed as he lifted the hatch and climbed onto the roof.

However, as soon as he looked forward, his half-spoken words were immediately cut off.

Only one exclamation drifted in the wind—

"My Luo Tianyi..."

An incredibly huge sinkhole blocked their way.

The yujin people Marine guarding around this sinkhole had lost contact with their superiors and only noticed the armored convoy when it popped out.

Consequently, before the enemy could finish one round of volley fire, the sand dragons and bullfrog descending from the sky began to intervene in the battlefield.

With precise targeting and tacit cooperation, in less than a minute, those yujin people fire points were all destroyed, turning into burning steel and scrap.

After clearing all the yujin people's fire points, the squadron leader immediately jumped off the armored vehicle.

He walked to the edge of the pit and looked down.

This pit had collapsed very cleverly; a large number of building debris were propped up against each other, looking shaky but not completely fallen.

It looked like if one were to walk on it rashly, every step would face huge risks.

After looking for a few seconds, he made his judgment—

"Impassable."

Troublesome.

He curled his lip; it was his first time fighting under the Supreme Director and he had run into this situation, which made him very unhappy.

"Third Squadron, all units, rest on the spot!"

"I'll apply for engineering equipment from above first..."

Just as he was speaking, suddenly, two of his subordinates walked over, and between them was a person wearing a white robe—

"Report, Squadron Leader! Just now, this local saw us killing those heretics,"

"He claims to be the 'leader of worship' here, and says he can take us to the bottom of that pit by another path!"

"He says we were sent by the lord of the sand sea to save them, should we deal with it?"

Thinking for a moment, the squadron leader couldn't help it, and he replied:

"You take a squad to scout, we will continue to wait for the engineering equipment here!"

"Yes!"

...

I'll post the rest tomorrow during the day, I'm exhausted.